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What should you expect? Was Phife's performance on "The Underdogs of Hip-Hop Tour" really going to erase the fact that he has been a perennial second banana to Q-Tip? Not too many people who showed up at Chicago's House of Blues on Wednesday night could honestly have expected Phife to take the stage, drop a whole album's worth of new material and make you forget he'd ever rhymed with A Tribe Called Quest. But we certainly could have expected a little more than we got.
The five-foot-assassin may have received top billing, but on Wednesday night the real star was the gruff-voiced Likwit emcee Xzibit, who performed alongside Defari and Tash. The Detroit-born, LA-based Mr. X came on stage dressed for business and proceeded to erase all doubts as to who owned the show. His energy and stage presence moved the near-capacity crowd. His protege Montage, resplendent in a hometown #23 Bulls Jersey, moved the mixed crowd with hungry freestyles. He and X hyped the crowd on joints like "The Foundation" and "What You See is What You Get," showcasing the intensity Phife displayed eight years ago.
Literally and figuratively, X delivered rhymes from his gut. His voice booms, hitting you in your chest like a punch from Big Reese, his ever-present security man-who earned his keep that night carrying out a fan who collapsed in the front.
Phife wasn't all bad, though. He started his set with a The Love Movement joint, "They Call Him Nutty Ranks," which jolted the audience from the exhausted lull into which they'd fallen after Xzibit's performance. Of all the new singles he performed, heads paid particular attention to "Essence" and "Ben Dover." Reprises of old Tribe verses interspersed with short snatches of classic Tribe tracks raised the level of energy inside the room.
But while the Tribe nostalgia drew the strongest crowd reaction, it was probably the weakest part of Phife's performance. His heavy reliance on memories to get the crowd moving underscored his unwillingness - or inability - to stand on his own. The bulk of his new material elicited little but indifference from the crowd; you could look down from the balcony and see a lot of folks standing still.
Johnny Quest, his hypeman, who shone later on in freestyle, tried to help out by filling in for Tip on "Check the Rhime."
"You on point, Phife?" Not this time, Quest.
MORGAN P. CAMPBELL