Yes, you can get a what-what
The National Post, May 5, 2007

"Let's give it up for Lori-Anne, y'all!" shouts More or Les (a.k.a. Les Seaforth), host of the monthly karaoke hiphop night at the Boat in Kensington Market.

As Lori-Anne Viloria, a petite Asian woman, steps on to the stage, the DJ starts spinning the booming instrumental version of Black Sheep's early '90s hit The Choice Is Yours.

She grabs the mic and spits out the first verse. "Can I hear a hey?" The enthusiastic crowd yells back: "Hey!" "Now get a yo!" "Yo!"

Like dozens of other participants, the 32-year-old massage therapist came to the Boat last month to live out her fantasies of being a hip-hop MC. These twentyand thirtysomethings are motivated by a strong nostalgia for rap from the '80s and '90s. Not merely content to perform the few hip-hop songs available at regular karaoke nights -- typically Young MC's Bust a Move, Tone- Loc's Wild Thing and Vanilla Ice's Ice Ice Baby -- they've come here to enjoy a selection of 270 hip-hop hits.

Viloria's friends congratulate her as she leaves the stage. "It's a rush. I love it," she says. "I grew up with these songs, this era of hip hop. I picked a song I used to sing all the time. I downloaded the lyrics and I was practising."

Unlike regular karaoke, there's no monitor displaying the words -- hip-hop karaoke performers are armed with only a printed lyric sheet. However, many shun the printouts, as they know the rhymes by heart. DJs play instrumental versions of the songs using Scratch Live, a software that allows them to play digital files on a turntable. More or Les backs up the performers on the choruses and on tracks with multiple MCs.

The first hip-hop karaoke night took place in New York City in 2004, and the concept has spread to London, Bristol, Brighton and Montreal. This past February, the DJs behind a retro hip-hop night at the Drake Underground introduced the concept to Toronto.

"It's as close as you can get to being a real MC," says organizer Noel Dix (a.k.a. DJ Numeric). "It's like a real hip-hop show."

Hip-hop songs typically have more lyrics and are faster than regular karaoke fare, so it's harder to fake it if you don't know the songs well. As a result, the performers at the Boat tend to be hip-hop enthusiasts and many of the amateur MCs are surprisingly good. Some of the performers, like Alex Margison, are also members of real hip-hop groups.

"I like it because normally, there's a lot of attitude in hip hop," says Margison, who performed How High, by Method Man and Redman, using his stage name A-Flex. "Here, it's just fun. There's no ego."

Other highlights of last month's event included an unscheduled performance by popular rocker Danko Jones, who did a hard-edged version of Ice-T's O.G. Original Gangster, and local rapper RaSoul's crowdpleasing rendition of Notorious B.I.G.'s Juicy. When the dreadlocked MC stepped offstage, the crowd clapped and hollered appreciatively.

"Let's give it up for RaSoul," says More or Les. "I don't get that feeling from doing Celine Dion!"

The next hip-hop karaoke night at the Boat is Thursday, May 10. Doors open at 9 p.m., show starts at 10 p.m. 158 Augusta Ave. $5. For more information, visit myspace.com/hiphopkaraoketoronto.