Las Vegas Weekly

March 16, 2009 · 1 PM

Grandma likes her hip hop fresh

By Aaron Thompson

Themselves' Doseone delivers on day four of Neon Reverb.

Photo: Aaron Thompson

Seventeen year-old Dylan Silva may be Anticon artist Doseone’s biggest fan, next to his grandma, that is. Poised outside of the Beauty Bar fence Sunday night on the final night of Neon Reverb, Silva and his grandmother, 63-year-old Donna, were straight up getting down to a rhythmically intense set by Nor Cal’s Themselves, fronted by Doseone.

"I've been in love with Doseone and Jel for years,” Silva said. “My grandma is here with me. She loves these guys, too, man.”

It was a strange sight to see an under-ager and a retiree peak through the diamond-shaped holes in the fence, but Dose’s efficient, spitfire rhymes and Jel’s beats were nearly impossible not to notice.

Soon, Dose called attention to them and promised the 17-year-old a free CD.

“I begged the guy to let me in,” said Silva, “but he wouldn’t.”

At the end of Themselves’ set, Dose and crew visited with the young fan who is also a member of local Anticon-inspired band The Donners Party, and his grandma braved the crowds of hipsters to score a couple of CDs for herself.

“This is what hip hop should be,” Donna said as she brushed the hair out of her face. A cutting edge granny by any means, Donna especially deserved credit for hanging outside a downtown bar around midnight on a school night.

And Silva wasn’t the only local who had trouble at the door. Rapper Jay Dubler, otherwise known as Late for Dinner, was denied entry into the bar after his state-issued I.D. was questioned by bouncers at the door. The problem: The state-issued I.D. was from a local prison in which Dubler served time.

“I don’t understand why they wouldn’t take this thing at the door,” Dubler said. “I mean, it’s got my picture. It’s got my name, it’s even got my birthday and it’s state issued. What the fuck!?”

Dubler eventually snuck into the show but was found out then tossed out of the show after Themselves finished their set. But after getting to see the show, he couldn’t be that pissed.

“Yeah, I mean I was on the list and I would have paid if I had too, but you know, I got to see Themselves, so I don’t care.”

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