Live And In The Flesh
Slaughterhouse - April 7, 2010
2010 was the first year I stepped foot into Ottawa's Ritual Nightclub! It wasn't long before I had two shows lined up in a single week at Ritual; Slaughterhouse with Pharoahe Monch on April 7th, and Brother Ali following them up on April 10th! I wasn't quite sure what to expect from the small club in downtown Ottawa, but it wasn't long before it became one of my favourite intimate venues in the city. A buddy and I decided to pick up tickets to the Slaughterhouse/Pharoahe Monch Canadian Tour which was scheduled to make its way through on a Wednesday night. We weren't too familiar with Slaughterhouse at the time, but we knew we couldn't miss Pharoahe Monch!
Starting his hip hop career up with Organized Konfusion back in the 90's with Prince Po, Monch had become a veteran of the game by this point in time, and we had to make sure we got out to see the pioneer in his natural element up on stage. The complexity within his rhymes and delivery was not to be missed, and we were both pretty excited to be getting out to experience them in person. Since the break up of Organized Konfusion in the late 90's, Pharoahe Monch had dropped a couple of solo albums since and was continuing to make a name for himself as one of the best MCs of all time. Working with the likes of Q-Tip, Talib Kweli, Mos Def and Common, he was up in the ranks with the best of the best.
We finally made our way into the venue and settled in with a drink or two before Pharoahe Monch took the stage. It was surprising to see how small the club was when we got there, with a capacity of less than a thousand, we knew we were in for a good time! After a couple of Red Stripes, we were settled in and ready for whatever he had in store for us. Pharoahe made his way up on stage and the crowd started going wild. Monch played quite a few tracks from his latest 2007 release, Desire, along with plenty of his other notable collaborations; My Life and Oh No. He even took us back to his earlier solo years with Fuck You, from his 2002 Y'all Know the Name bootleg, and one of his biggest hits from 1999's Internal Affairs album, Simon Says. The crowd seemed to love every minute of Pharoahe Monch's set which lasted just under an hour long. He had everyone warmed up and ready for Slaughterhouse!
We weren't too familiar with Slaughterhouse at the time, but knew of their past history with the likes of Dr. Dre, Puffy and Eminem, so we figured they must be onto something. With each of the members coming up strong with their solo efforts, it was only suitable to call their latest collaboration one of hip hop's most recent supergroups. Joe Budden, Joell Ortiz, Crooked I and Royce da 5'9" were all forces to be reckoned with by themselves, let alone on the stage together! It wasn't long after Pharoahe Monch left the stage, that Slaughterhouse would make their way up in front of the cheering fans.
Seeing as how they had just released their self-titled debut album mid-2009, we ended up hearing a good majority of that live. This was the group's first big tour across Canada with Pharoahe Monch, and they seemed pretty excited to be up on stage sharing what they've been pouring their hearts and souls into for the past little while. The venue was packed and the crowd in attendance seemed to be loving every minute of their set. Their energy was through the roof and you could feel the crowd and musicians feeding off of one another. Some of the highlights of the night were Sound Off, Microphone, The One, Woodstock (Hood Hop), and Killaz, just to name a few. You could tell that they were all in the zone up on stage doing what they do best, putting on a killer show! The show went on well into the early hours of the morning and we were exhausted by the end of it all. It was an incredible first experience at the Ritual Nightclub in Ottawa, and we were looking forward to the next experience with Brother Ali just a few short days away!