April 14, 2000

London Hoxton Spitz

...dressed in enormo gold chain'n'silken leezure-wear top, looks like a Jewish [B]Elvis[/B] in the Treetops home for the creatively deluded...

Chilly Gonzales, the Berlin-dwelling, Jewish-Canadian MC and self-anointed "musical genius/prankster" dressed in enormo gold chain'n'silken leezure-wear top, looks like a Jewish Elvis in the Treetops home for the creatively deluded. Deliberately.

This 'comedy' spectacle is Gonzales' much-trumpeted hardcore Berlin underground 'revolution' at play, which consists, tonight, of a wilfully amateur shriek-fest of the world's most abysmal rap lyrics about "dicks" and "fucks". As a gonzo-wind-up satire on The Hip-Hop Stereotype, it includes much wielding of a two-foot-long cardboard comedy spliff, a prop that's more of a clichi than the clichi he comes to 'subvert'.

The Fashion Fascists of London's trendy Hoxton are 100 per cent bewildered: what's the 'cool' reaction to this? A pervstress strides on shouting an atrocious 'song' called 'Lick My Boot'. It's bloody awful. Deliberately. Then Gonzales cranks up a blinding hip-hop breakbeat stunna called 'Fuck Music' and everyone cheers. Gonzales wins. "I don't know if I'm serious or not!" he booms, "Who's the musical genius and who's fronting!?!" before the 'system' breaks down, deliberately, and the entire collective spend 15 minutes pretending to be hysterical chimpanzees, one with a Planet Of The Apes head on.

It's a theatrical exposi of the ease of mind-manipulation, and of the reverence we attach to absolutely nothing at all. And, sadly, it's nowhere near as effective, offensive, clever, or hilarious as Gonzales and his pals, nigh hospitalised with mirth, think it is. 'Gonzales Uber Alles', meanwhile, is a beat-driven, song-stuffed work of atmospheric magnificence. Don't expect Gonzales to let you know he's actually any good. That's for people who are crap.