Crib Notes

Atlanta’s industry-heavy scene meets its left-of-center hip-hop movement Wednesday at Uptown for the pre-BET Awards celebration for nominee, Bangladesh.

The producer put pure alkaline in rapper Lil Wayne’s battery pack this summer with the #1 hit “A Milli.” It’s only part of the reason why we bestowed him with Best local beatmaker honors in CL’s recent 2008 Best of Atlanta issue.

The other reason — his ability to play both sides of the fence and collaborate with emerging, electro-pop tarts like Muffy, who’s scheduled to perform at the party.

The dress code says it all: “Be electric.”

Free. 10 p.m.-3 a.m. Wed., Oct. 15. Uptown Lounge, 201 Courtland St. 404-524-3151. www.uptownrestaurantandlounge.com.

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After Kate Hudson stopped being Chris Robinson’s real-life Penny Lane, Robinson retreated to the place he felt most comfortable: THE BLACK CROWES. The band’s comeback album, Warpaint, got an unexpected PR push earlier this year when Maxim magazine was put in the embarrassing position of admitting it had panned the new record without having heard it. Turns out they should have listened. Warpaint proved to be the band’s most successful album in more than a decade, and it was followed by a tour on which the Crowes reclaimed their elevated position in America’s rock ‘n’ roll hierarchy. Rock on. www.blackcrowes.com. — Scott Freeman

Click here to view CL’s complete 2008 Best of Atlanta/After Dark critics’ and readers’ picks.

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Killer Mike in Kirkwood

KILLER MIKE is a rapper with an agenda, and usually those make for the most focused MCs. In Mike’s case, it makes him one of the best – both in Atlanta and beyond. Representing for the working class, his latest release, I Pledge Allegiance to the Grind II, is a precise continuation of the street knowledge he branded on the first installment. Songs such as “Good Bye (City of Dope),” “Pressure” (featuring Ice Cube) and “God in the Building” elevate his standing in hip-hop’s lyrical hierarchy. Killer Kill from Adamsville (as he’s affectionately known) has the storytelling, nonirritating braggadocio and metaphors to make even the most noted lyricist brush up his pen game. www.myspace.com/grindtimeonline. — Jacinta Howard

To view the complete 2008 Best of Atlanta/After Dark critics’ and readers picks, click here.

Photo by Maurice Garland

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When Creative Loafing gave Supreeme the Critics Pick for best hip-hop act last year in our annual Best of Atlanta issue (which drops again on Sept. 24), it threw a lot of cats for a loop.

Not merely because of the convoluted title we bestowed upon the trio — “Best Local Hip-hop Act That’s Not OutKast” — but because they weren’t one of the many snappers, trappers or OutKast clones that uphold the city’s well-deserved rep as hip-hop capital of the world.

In other words, they’re original.

Too original, in fact, to be called a rap group, which has almost become a cliché in itself. I mean, starting a rap group is like a rite of passage nowadays. I actually quit my last one to take this day job. Ah, but I digress progress.

Anyway, back to Supreeme — the poster group for post-adolescent (fill in the blank, hell it’s Friday). The video above is for the song “I’m Crazy” from their new mixtape Silver Medallion, which predates their upcoming sophomore label release, Gold Medallion.

They shot it in one day using VHS, which gives it a real grainy, vintage look — like a bootleg horror flick made by a couple of film school dropouts. You’ll recognize such classic Atlanta stomping grounds as Little Five Points and the club, Drunken Unicorn. Tom Cruz, King Self and Negashi are supposed to resemble criminal-minded zombies of some sort (per the setup, which you can pause the video at the beginning to read), but mostly they just look like themselves.

Rappers without anti-perspirant. Now take that and fill in the blank up above.

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