Coast Contra
‘Coast Contra’ began as a project in Los Angeles between twin brothers Taj and Ras Austin, together with the bilingual Colombian artist Rio Loz. Through a mutual workplace, their colleague Eric Jamal from Philadelphia joined the group and since then, the four emcees have been creating music together. Their trademark is technical rap - stylistic devices like extended metaphors, triple entendres and incredibly tight interplay are nearly standard for the crew.
World Of Nelly
Before Coast Contra took the stage, the Melkweg treated us to a strong support act. WORLDOFNELLY, an emcee from Illinois now living in Rotterdam, managed to easily win over the crowd within a single track. Nelly’s voice is clear, calm, and subtly reminiscent of J. Cole. Very pleasant, and thus it wasn’t surprising his last track was delivered over a Cole instrumental. The songs ‘Where’s Darnell’ and ‘Vibe Distorted’ stood out, and hopefully we’ll be seeing much more from this talented artist. Nelly more than warmed up the venue for the rap extravaganza that followed.
TV Off
From the moment DJ IB-Rease appeared on stage, tension in the room felt palpable. After a short introduction, he played ‘The Black Hole – Overture’ by John Barry, looped the sampled section and seamlessly blended it into ‘TV Off’ by Kendrick Lamar. Coast Contra’s fellow Angeleno played this year’s Super Bowl halftime show and is globally more popular than ever before. In response, the crowd roared a deafening ‘MUSTAAAAAARD,’ instantly letting the DJ know the vibe check passed for the rest of the night.
Took It To The Table
Meanwhile, a production crew set up four chairs and a table on stage. The audience audibly held its breath. ‘No way, are they really going to do this?!, a surprised visitor in the back gasped. To the beat of ‘08 Obama’, the four emcees entered the stage and sat down at the table, mirroring their YouTube freestyles. The result? A flawless live rendition of their newest freestyle, complete with choreographies and multi-voice verses. Tangible proof that the group doesn’t do studio trickery. This was Coast Contra in its absolute purest form.
A Tribe Called Coast
Although the group released a debut album ‘Apt. 505’ and two EPs, their best-known tracks are freestyles over the instrumentals of classic hits. ‘What’s Da Cenario?’, based on ‘Scenario’ by A Tribe Called Quest, even triggered a mosh pit across the entire venue. The emcees were visibly pleased with the explosive energy and enjoyed the love from the crowd. “Damn, Amsterdam! You guys on fire!,” one of the members shouted with a wide smile.
Word Puzzles
While Coast Contra brought the ruckus, their core strength lay in lyrical depth. A seemingly straightforward line like: “This hip pop, we came to spit raw / What y'all do is backwards / helpin' em win the war / Coast gon' give back words that push fourth” is actually a word puzzle, packed with multi-syllable rhyme, homonyms, broken rhyme, contrasts, internal rhyme and double entendres. Let’s do a little breakdown for clarification.
Give Back Words Backwards
The word ‘war’ is the reverse of ‘raw’, and ‘give back words’ is the opposite of ‘push forth’, while also rhyming with ‘backwards’. ‘Push forth’ gets a homonymic twist - ‘fourth’, as in the four group members -and the depth of the phrase ‘hip pop’ is reinforced through layered meaning of the text. Layers that many likely missed, but the fans were clearly loving every bit of it.
The Power Of A Group
Rap groups are unmatched when their group dynamic strengthens the music. Coast Contra is top-tier, with metaphorical choreography and expressions - a hallmark from their freestyles. During the lines quoted above, the emcees walked in a circle, then physically moved backwards on ‘backwards’. During a ‘Mexican standoff’ metaphor, the four performed a visual gun standoff. At the lyric ‘borderline crazy’, twin brothers Taj and Ras Austin stood back-to-back, portraying a single person with conflicting thoughts. The cheers from the crowd were deafening and unmistakable - theatre is an underrated force in Hip Hop.
Old To New
Alongside the freestyles ‘Never’ and ‘Disruptive’, the group played songs off their new EP ‘In Case You Forgot’. Tracks like ‘Mountain Climber’ and ‘Shanghai Tower’ sounded even better live than they do on the record. The Coast even had room for unreleased material. Rio Loz effortlessly switched between layered Spanish and English bars on every track, while Eric Jamal even theatrically mimicked a mic failure. The group energy was overwhelming - but never overdone.
Fifth Group Member
After each song and every round of applause, the group’s members looked at the crowd with satisfaction. All of them made very clear that the love between them is a brotherhood - and that the audience is considered the fifth member of the group. “Coast Contra is a mentality. Gratitude, purpose, and persistence.” Followed by two family principles: “Be yourself” and “be legendary.” With those words in mind, the group performed their final song, ‘Legendary’. Especially Rio Loz, powered by the audience’s energy, blew everyone away with his rapid-fire rhymes.
Legendary
After the show’s end and a thunderous round of applause, the audience literally screamed for an encore. The group flew into ‘What’s Da Cenario?’ once again as the venue exploded into a swirling sea of people, jumping around until Coast Contra left the stage. Outside the venue, well-known Dutch Hip Hop artists debated: ‘Better than De La Soul? Did it even top Wu-Tang Clan?’. Smiling at their debate, the LA group signed autographs and met fans in the hallway. The fact that even the legendary and critical KRS-One had praised the guys with admiration in Paris the day before really said it all. One thing is permanent: the coast is here. And if you love rap, you need to go see them.
Written in Dutch for Maxazine:
Coast Contra werd onvergetelijk in de Melkweg
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