La Coka Nostra

There’s still room in hip-hop for glass smashing barroom boom bap and the coke sniffing, bitch slapping and booze bagging that come along with it.  And judging by the number of adolescent Abercrombie adversaries who flocked to the Gramercy Theatre for La Coka Nostra’s first official East Coast show (they dropped in on Cypress Hill at the Nokia Theatre last winter), there’s an army of misguided late-teens out there who fiend for the sort of roughneck rhymes and King Kong bass lines that the all-white all-star team of House of Pain, ILL Bill and Boston ringer Slaine came along packing.

With fans still crashing through the doors, Slaine’s Beantown squad Special Teamz touched down first.  Chasing a tricked out vinyl parade by DJ JayCeeOh, comrades Slaine, Jaysaun and posi-rap pioneer Edo G reached backpackers with tracks from their upcoming Duck Down Records debut.  It wasn’t easy, but between the group’s fierce battle-veined ethos and impenetrable Pete Rock and DJ Premier backdrops, Special Teamz ignited heads who are more familiar with Madball than they are with Screwball. 

By the time The Lordz took stage, the room was swelled.  Brooklyn’s pizza shop punks delivered for the full hardcore-hop gamut, with MC Kavez crushing through his band’s guitar burns and panicky drums.  The fedora rockers laid a loud and proper bridge between Special Teamz and Psycho Realm, which flipped the focus back on rhymes, but also gassed fans with Sick Jacken’s treacherous vibe and Duke’s ski mask.

Emerging to the thunderous “Get Outta My Way,” La Coka Nostra roofed the gang of miscreants who were itching to get rowdy.  By the time Everlast marched on stage, the signs prohibiting mosh pits were officially being ignored.  Following “A Beautiful Thing,” the crew showcased its side projects, with Slaine cranking verses from his White Man is the Devil mixtapes, and Bill kicking “Anatomy of a School Shooting” and “Scum” with fellow Non-Phixion alum Sabac Red catching his back.

And then some unexpected guests filed in.  After a spiel about swallowing handfuls of Xanax and knocking back a fifth of Jack Daniels, Slaine asked fans for permission to freestyle over Jeru the Damaja’s eternal “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.”  Moments later, Jeru, hip-hop’s legendary white devil slayer himself, joined the melanin-deprived posse to bless the track, causing many heads to rub their eyes and ears in disbelief.

There wasn’t a single low energy moment during La Coka’s hour-long set.  From Slaine’s drinking anthem, “99 Bottles,” to DITC stalwart OC’s dropping in sporting an LCN t-shirt, to the much expected yet wildly appreciated “Jump Around” encore, fans were able to muster up enough testosterone to rape and pillage through Gramercy Park on their commutes home, and effectively prove that it’s still possible to push unapologetically raw raps on tatted hardrocks.