Qwel

If you like a side of brains with your beats, Qwel and Quaazar of the Typical Cats are as cerebral as underground Chicago hip-hop gets. In Qwel’s world, backpacks clang with heavy Krylon cans, faces are hidden deep in the recesses of hoodies, and everyone has a comeback ready in case of a word war (You couldn’t beat me to death if I let you jump first). Whoever booked this Record Bar show must be playing a trick on all these underground MCs, mashup-style: Honky-tonkers Rex Hobart and the Misery Boys play at 7p.m. They’re the last people you’d expect to run into in a dark alley wielding spray paint. As for the rest of the show, expect lots of Qwel’s signature riffing on graffiti bombs (I won’t stop painting till the world looks the way it should/I’m on a mission to make the heavens look like my neighborhood), which will meld well with the power-to-the-people, revolutionary rhymes of the Deep Thinkers. And because he’s a rapping workaholic, expect to see Qwel posted up after his set in the Record Bar’s parking lot, having a smoke and a rhyme session with anyone brave enough to step to him.