Rap Lineup Goes One for Three

The rap show on Friday night at the Celebrity Theatre in Anaheim started at the pinnacle and wound up in the pits.

This long, delay-filled evening of steadily diminishing returns ended with teen-age headliners Wrecks-N-Effect grinding to a wretchedly amateurish embarrassment of a finish that was rewarded with scattered boos. Another young New York rap crew, Redhead Kingpin & the F.B.I., turned in an energetic but lightweight middle set. But Def Jef, a more experienced rapper based in Los Angeles, made it all worthwhile with a near-perfect opening set that was fun, funky, and politically focused--a textbook example of all that’s good in rap music (a homophobic comment from Jef also demonstrated what’s worst in rap).

For 35 deftly paced minutes, Def Jef (real name: Jeffrey Fortson), deejay Erick Vaan and a trio of wonderful dancers called the Soul Brothers offered a cornucopia of rhyme, rhythm and eye-popping motion. Throughout his segment, Def Jef expertly interwove his key themes: rap as a call to party, rap as a foundation for friendship, and rap as a vehicle for expressing black pride and black protest. Carrying himself with unusual confidence and charm, Def Jef was able to be both serious and entertaining. He and his crew made a well-thought-out performance seem like casual, happy play.