Last Saturday Dan and I went to go check out Ugly Duckling, Prince Paul, and Aceyalone at the Engine Room.

The one sentence summary: The sound at the Engine Room blows.

JV told me that someone once said that the Engine Room 'makes everybody sound like Def Leppard.'

I had a good time, though. Up until my ears started to hurt from all the distortion. Ugly Duckling opened, and they were pretty fun. They were funny, self-deprecating, and straight to the point. I think the one dude had a mullet, though. Aceyalone headlined, and he was tight. I honestly think he's one of the best MCs alive - his delivery is versatile and his breath control is amazing. He brought DJ Drez (I saw the two of them at S.O.B.'s in New York last year) and this time Drez's needles didn't skip when he juggled and looped "Billie Jean" while Aceyalone did "Makeba" on top. And as a little surprise, Abstract Rude was along for the ride as well. It's just too bad that it was so hard to understand any of the lyrics due to the poor sound quality.

The real entertainment was Prince Paul's set. It was like vaudeville on crack and LSD combined. Prince Paul brought along Mr. Dead from the BK. Paul was really working the whole "Politics of the Business" angle for a bit, but then things got crazy. Mr. Dead played two different characters during the evening, a 'choreographer' named 'Cricco Valencio' and a singer named 'Johnny Massengill.' You can imagine the craziness. He told us up front that things might get bugged out, and they did... that was the livest show I'd seen in a while. Just completely freaky. Still, it was amazing to see the man behind some of the greatest hip-hop of all time - Stetsasonic, De La Soul and Gravediggaz, plus "A Prince Among Thieves" and "Handsome Boy Modeling School." He's crazy, but genius usually is...