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Venue

Ocean Mist

895 Matunuck Beach Rd, 02879, Matunuck, RI, US

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Grieves biography

Grieves is the stage name of one Mr Benjamin Laub, an American rapper hailing from Chicago, Illinois born on the 23rd of February, 1984. In his seven year career he’s released a handful of studio albums, E.Ps and singles.

Grieves may have been born in Chicago but Seattle, Washington has been his hometown for most of his career. He says that the reason it’s such a breeding ground for great music is that it’s “the same thing as London - it's rainy and gloomy and shitty all the time, so you stay in and make music”.

This does explain the influx of Hip Hop coming from the Pacific North-West, a charge led by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, no less. However, what it doesn’t explain is how Grieves’ music that’s so charged, vibrant and utterly full of life, can come from a place so resolutely grey and miserable.

He signed to the label Rhymesayers in 2010 but Grieves had been making music since 2007. He released his first record the same year and in 2008, he struck up a creative partnership with the producer Budo. He produced Grieves’ next album “88 Keys and Counting”, which was the record that got him signed.

The pair returned for 2011’s album “Together/Apart”, Grieves’ first charting effort on the Billboard 200 and topping the Billboard Heatseekers chart. The pair were also rewarded by joining the 2011 Warped Tour for a couple of dates, pushing their profile up all the more.

Since then Budo and Grieves have chosen to amicably seek new musical paths together, and the subsequent album from Grieves went to number 57 on the Billboard 200. Clearly, he is a talent that can speak eloquently and powerfully for himself, and he’s only just getting started.

Live reviews

Michael Jones, aka. Wax, is a musician who’s career I’ve been following for some years now. The versatile multi-instrumentalist has succeeded in fusing many genres, such as rap, singer/songwriter, and piano into an original style. It’s incredible to see how far he’s come since his release of Rosana on YouTube back in 2012 which now has 29 million views.

I knew that I was going to get an awesome show seeing Wax live, but nothing could have prepared me for the show that he put on. He opened the show behind a DJ desk, mixing several tracks of his own, whilst playing the synth and keys over the top. There was also a camera that projected his mixing on a screen behind him so we could see what he was doing which was cool. He then began rapping over the top of the mix that he had just built up with his loop pedal, and was shouting out for us to join in with the song, which was awesome as an audience.

As well as these exciting surprises, he played everyone’s favourite tracks, from Toothbrush, to I Shoulda Tried Harder. He also played some of his collaborations, like Grizzly Season, and got everyone up on their feet dancing. It was a real demonstration of his talent, and a super fun night.

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yazhow

Benjamin Laub, aka Grieves, is a multi-talented rapper/singer that I spontaneously checked out on a random trip to Seattle, Washington. He hails from the same location as Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, and you can definitely see the similarity in style of the two acts; Laub, however, has a talent for singing which he includes in his songs.
For his set he opened with “Woah Is Me,” a song about life. Grieves writes his material on real life, and has a hell of a lot of fun doing it flawlessly transitioning from rapping his verses to singing his choruses. As he performs you can see how much he enjoys it, which emanates out to the crowd. He also performed an older song “Scar Gardens,” which, as he said, “changed up to keep things fresh.” I obviously didn’t know how it was different since it was the first time hearing the song, but for a first time listener I did end up going back and listening to the original since I liked the live performance so much.
Aside from “thanks” and introductions, he also talked to the crowd. In between songs he told a few stories of his move into Seattle and part of how he got into making music shortly after moving. He also included a bit of banter between himself, his guitar player and his keyboardist. He finished out the set with two more songs: “Shreds” and “Kidding Me,” and overall I left the show satisfied with the performance.

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