I do like the fact that while we aren’t a media market but we are given the opportunity to see people before they blow up because of Schoolboy Productions, who now goes by Old Boy Pro.
  Tink came to Park Street Columbus, June 20th.

  There was a solid line-up of Dominique LaRue, Nes Wordz, Hodgie IIIV and more

  People who attended the show where mostly ladies. There was a contingent of people that normally go to rock concerts or underground rap events.

  The rock people seemed to have a slight problem with the formatting because they wanted to see Tink and leave.

  Tink is a rapper/r-and-b singer from Chicago who mixes 90’s R-and-B with rap styles that sit somewhere between Nikki Minaj’s cadence and Azalea Banks retro-chic.

  Tink’s version of “One In A Million” by Aaliyah is not to be confused with the racist and xenophobe David Allen Coe-esqe Guns N Roses song of the same title has just hit radio.

  Tink’s version is produced by Timbaland who obviously produced Aaliyah’s original version.

  Tink’s boast of  “I’m only 19 and they already crowned me the realist.”  towards the beginning of her set was backed up by this fact.

  Tink went into her duet with Jeremiah “Don’t Tell Nobody,” “She Loves Him” and an a capella  to full rendition of “Treat Me Like Somebody.”

  The underlying themes of these song is that her boyfriend or ex-boyfriend doesn’t quite treat her correctly whether it’s fidelity issues or just general lack of appreciation.

  Tink also performed “Ratchet Commandments’ which obviously is a take on Biggie’s “10 Crack Commandments.” except instead of giving a thorough manual on how to sell drugs, Tink utilizes this template to critique and give advice to women who don’t properly respect either their situation or themselves.

  She rocked “Million.” Tink sonically holds true to Aaliyah’s classic.

  However, lyrically Tink modifies from Aaliyah’s just blanket gushing of love to detail both reasons to love and reasons to not love utilizing rap cadence while holding to the melody, and smoothness.

  Rapping uses more words than singing so it allows.

  Performance-wise she had a backing vocal track but you could hear Tink’s voice and she can execute.

  This was a relatively new artist performing, so her playing for 30 minutes has its plus and minuses.

  It’s possible to say one did not see enough to really gauge her full potential. The counter-argument is: do you really want a new artist to play for 2 hours?

  Fortunately, I was able to see LaRue perform at Comfest.

  Obviously there was a discussion this week about Comfest’s interaction with Hip Hop. I’ve always held that if you want Comfest to change then you need to volunteer. I have not.  

  Dominique LaRue performed backed by DJ Pos 2 with Nes Wordz rocking with them.

  LaRue started of her set by pretending to have forgotten their instrumentals.

  Pos pulled out a cassette. He let the music drop. Once the beat hit; the energy kept building.
  LaRue gave out drug screening kits and candy to the crowd while rapping with clarity, and confidence going through songs off LaRue’s album “Grand” and also letting Nes Wordz give some run.

  There was a beach ball passed around.

  It had rained during most of Comfest so the polished energy was just what the crowd needed.

Mount Carmel's newer stuff is raunchy, rock music, it was like if you chopped a Black Sabbath riff in half and put it over biker rock. Mount Carmel also played some of their older more blues based stuff ended with “Swaggs.”