Chapel Hill
Busdriver, Abstract Rude
Local 506At the outset of his new disc, jhelli beam, Los Angeles rapper Busdriver avers that “conscious rap has failed us,” though one question looms: Who was it supposed to serve, anyway? With elocution that’d make the Road Runner look like a city bus, Busdriver turns hairpin rhymes into short-fuse bombs, exploding the plastique as well as “the real.” As furious and political as Chuck D, Busdriver is less of a caped crusader and more of a Vishnu-like land leveler with wide-ranging scorn. He zeroes in on cultural hypocrisy and dysfunction with keen references and scathing wit. Still, he lacks the redemptive positivity to make him anything more than a particularly well-read/ spoken hater. He’s fun live, though. Pay $10 at 9:30 p.m. See www.local506.com. Chris Parker
