By Landon Antonetti

Lexington has seen its fair share of quality hip-hop acts throughout the years.

This year alone, Del Tha Funky Homosapien, Devin The Dude, Little Brother and Evidence of Dilated Peoples have rolled through this fair city and torn down the venues lucky enough to host them.

In the past we’ve seen KRS-One, De La Soul and Outkast come to town and do the same. Not to mention, Lexington’s own hometown heroes CunninLynguists have hit various venues around town and wowed crowds. Adding to the list of legendary acts gracing Lexington with their presence will be Michigan’s own One Be Lo and west coast heavy-hitters The Coup.

One Be Lo, formerly of the duo Binary Star, has recently released a new LP titled “The R.E.B.I.R.T.H.” One Be Lo has always fused raw lyrics with raw beats to create a Molotov cocktail of great hip-hop music; he does no differently on his newest album. With production from esteemed producers such as Jake One and Memo of The Molemen, One Be Lo shocks the hip-hop world with his conscious, hard-hitting lyrics, waging war on whack rappers everywhere.

One Be Lo will be performing Saturday at the annual Beaux Arts Ball, along with a slew of other artists ranging from obscure rock to indie pop.

Just twenty days later, another premier hip-hop act will be performing in Lexington. The Coup, which consists of Boots Riley on the mic and Pam The Funkstress on the turntables, will be performing at WRFL’s 20th anniversary

The Coup has made its mark as the funkiest hip-hop group there ever was, adopting the traits of ’70s funk while keeping up the momentum that the “G-Funk” movement began in the ’90s.

Visually, The Coup is an interesting duo: Boots Riley looks like a cross between Sly Stone and Jim Kelly from the blaxploitation film “Black Belt Jones,” and Pam The Funkstress is a brick house of a woman commanding your respect from behind the wheels of steel. An interesting fact about Pam is that aside from DJ’ing for The Coup, she also runs a successful catering business in her home state of California.

Unfortunately for fans, Pam does not tour with Boots; instead Boots plays with a three-man band, which makes for an exceptional show nonetheless. Their last album, “Pick A Bigger Weapon,” which was released in 2006, featured Boots Riley’s patented politically charged rhymes with some high profile MC’s following suite. Among those MC’s were Talib Kweli and The Roots own lyrical monster, Black Thought.

Both One Be Lo and The Coup will be added to the list of legendary hip-hop acts to storm through this city.  We can only hope that years from now Lexington will still be considered the hot spot for hip-hop that it is today.

Be sure to come out to the Beaux Arts Ball (www.beaux-arts-ball.org) this Saturday to show love for One Be Lo. And dont’ forget The Coup will perform April 26 at WRFL’s FreeKY Fest, for more information visit the WRFL Web site (http://wrfl.fm). Both of these shows will be off the hook, so don’t sleep!

Landon Antonetti is an undecided sophomore and production director

at WRFL. E-mail features@

50.63.25.108.