One of the more memorable showcases from this year’s SXSW Music Festival is the “DXSW” Detroit Hip-Hop Showcase presented by Emergence Music. Headed by Invincible, Emergence brought what felt like the entire city of Detroit to Victory Grill. The lineup was nothing less than stellar. Producer/Emcee Black Milk along with Slum Village headlined the showcase which consisted of solid acts such as, Invincible, Finale, & Monica Blaire as well as host Illa J.

The night began with a performance by iLLiTe & Magestik Legend. Now On which consists of members Jackson Perry, IX Lives & DJ Haircut who is better known as Mayer Hawthorne followed as the second act of the night.

After several short sets from Mae Day, Ro Spit, Marv Won & Vaughn T, one of the highlights of the evening’s event, known as Monica Blaire graced the stage at Victory Grill. This is this second time I’ve seen Monica perform and there is no doubt in my mind that she brings 110% of herself every time. Currently, Detroit is known for its stable of talented emcees with very few well known vocalists. So, in a world of harsh winters and hard-nosed rappers, Monica approaches the stage as a singer with the mentality and adrenaline of an emcee set to rip the microphone to shreds. If you ever have the chance to see her perform, please do so. She’s well worth the time.

For the remaining hour of the event, the sounds were provided by none other than Invincible, Finale, Slum Village & Black Milk. Invincible, who had double-duty as event organizer and performer, shared the stage with Finale and kept the crowd warm as they waited for the night’s headliners. Not to be out done, Finale got some solo stage time and did two wonderful things. One was perform his J Dilla produced record, Heat, and the other was to bring out friend and St. Louis emcee known as Vandalyzm. Both actions were met with gratitude from the audience in the form out shouts and cheers.

One of the two final acts of the night, Slum Village, took the stage. Rapper eLZhi couldn’t make it out to SXSW so T3 took the stage and was joined by Rio Data & Illa J who served as host for the evening and is also J Dilla’s younger brother. The trio performed without hiccup as if it were T3, Baatin & eLZhi to the enjoyment of the crowd. Black Milk hit the stage next and took the “audience request” approach. House Shoes would play a track and Black would judge the crowd’s reaction. If it was worthy, Black Milk would perform the record and if the reaction were lackluster, House Shoes would go to the next track. This worked out well for Black and it continued until the end of his set.

All in all, the “Detroit Invades Austin” Showcase was a success. Thank you Invincible, Emergence Music and Splinkme.

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Photos & words by Jonathan Crisp.

TAGS: 14KT, Austin, Black Milk, Crown Royale, Daru Jones, Detroit, DJ Haircut, Emergence, Finale, Houseshoes, Illa Ja, Invincible, IX Lives, J-Dilla, Jackson, Mae Day, Marv Won, Mayer Hawthorne, Miz Korona, Monica Blaire, Now On, Perry, Ro Spit, Slum Village, Splinkme, SXSW, TX, Vaughn T, Victory Grill