OurStage

Also sharing a stage with the Luckyiam and his crew is Agustus thElefant and his clan Lost Tribe, known for their jazzy beats and slowed down nonpretentious vocals; they’re trying to attack the corporate world in a different way. Lost Tribe’s recent endeavor is a hookup with video-game maker Namco Bandai, which commissioned them to create the score for a video game adaptation of Samuel L. Jackson’s Afro Samurai cartoon. Weird, right?

Emcee: Agustus thElefant Album: “Sole Expression” By Aaris A. Schroeder Founder/Editor-In-Chief Highly intellectual emcee, Agustus ThElefant’s most anticipated album, released in ’06, “Sole Expression,” engineered by JustLove, both of Lost Tribe has car drivers bumping and club-goers bobbing. Complex and definitely not sweet, Agustus’ album is dark, melodramatic and real hip-hop. Originally from the Northern CA foothills, Agustus performs his seamless emcee battling skills all over from Reno to Santa Cruz and all through the middle. More obvious than an elephant on a stage, Agustus brings raw and unbeatable talent on his album with songs about high school, love notes and herb such as, “Ol Skool.” Get on it with Agustus at http://www.myspace.com/agustusthelefant and check out one of his shows in Nor-Cal.

Show review: Agustus thElefant click to see larger version Last year sucked, musically and otherwise, but I’m hoping that 2008 will mark the end of the Bob Dylan imitator trend and bring us something more refreshing than stripped down hobo-folk and pretentious rich kids pretending to be poor. And maybe hip-hop will stop taking itself so seriously … Well, on a good note to end last year, Agustus thElefant trekked down from the banana slug-ed hills of Santa Cruz to fill our quaint Press Club (a perfect place for a hip-hop show since the remodel, as it now eerily resembles “The Shelter,” the place in Detroit where Eminem got his start)with his ultra-unique rap flow and energetic performance. Technical difficulties started the show off slow, but in the style of a pachyderm gone wild, Agustus thElefant stampeded over technological barriers and killed unapologetically and without mercy. Figuratively, of course. Producer JustLuv, the creator of some of the best hip-hop beats in the nation (if you don’t believe that statement, check here), even joined thElefant on stage for a few choice b-boy stances. In the crowd supporting hip-hop, as usual, was most of the Neighborhood Watch crew and Mahtie Bush (who right this very minute is in the studio recording a song with Snoop Dog and Keak Da Sneak). Also in attendance was the creepy drunk guy in the corner, the overweight sorority slut sloppily dancing with the jukebox and the black guy wearing loafers dancing too enthusiastically. In all, it was a fine night that will be followed by a year of more fine nights. Check out Agustus thElefant on MySpace here, and get his album Sole Expression at Dimple Records.

LOST TRIBE IS A MUSICAL COLLECTIVE CONSISTING OF MEMBERS JUSTLUV AKA MOSES McCARTHY, AGUSTUS THELEFANT, AND M.L.B. THESE THREE INDIVIDUALS ARE ALL FROM DIFFERENT BACKGROUNDS BUT CARRY A COMMON GOAL IN SHARING THE GIFT OF MUSIC THEY HAVE BEEN GIVEN WITH THE WORLD AT LARGE... LOST TRIBE MAKES MUSIC THAT IS GOOD, AND ULTIMATLEY REGARDLESS OF MARKETING, GIMMICKS OR SOME SHIT TO SELL... PEOPLE WANT GOOD MUSIC.