Lyricist Lounge Tour 2002

For true, hip-hop has put its head to many strange bedfellows as it continues to grow in size, stature and power. Ghetto celebrities and unrepentant criminals share the stage with enlightened truthsayers and silently extraordinary designers and technical innovators, and everyone is scheming for a piece of the power and influence the form bestows upon its favored. A good cross-section of talent and experience has chosen to work through Christmas to ensure its hold on the Hip Hop Nation is either strengthened or established on the Fifth Annual Lyricist Lounge Tour. Watching them work for their paper and continued relevancy should provide for some high drama and unforgettable moments.

Now that Eminem has legitimized the cause of white rappers, many eyes are focused on Maine-based rapper Poverty, whose story of selling records in his native Portland--while homeless--has landed him a potential star-making deal with Internet-based record label ARTISTdirect. He'll have to work hard to steal the mike from Houston's favorite son Scarface, whose lock on the Dirty South is still awfully strong. Inner-city Eastern mystic-scholar Killah Priest and longtime MC and producer Erick Sermon represent their own unique poles in the East Coast hip-hop tradition. Bringing up the rear is Blest e Nation and Grapf, who look to jump out of the underground mix tapes and into the big time, à la 8 Mile co-star 50 Cent. Perhaps it's sacrilegious to schedule something like this during the holiday season, but these guys know you can't sleep on opportunity. Why should you?