Haystak

As much as Nashville-centered rapper Haystak seemingly exploits his whiteness (with albums including Car Fulla White Boys and Portrait of a White Boy), anyone with even a cursory understanding of his music over the last decade knows that playing the race card is more a marketing strategy than a central theme. The real issues Haystak deals with are class-based, as he devotes plenty of material to dealing with growing up poor and Southern (making the simplified label "white-trash music" both unfair and surprisingly accurate). And in today's hyper-consumerist/hypersexual rap game, it's always refreshing to hear honest accounts of being broke and uncool. Fitting in nicely somewhere between Bubba Sparxxx and Project Pat, Haystak proves why the South is largely ruling things in 2007—if you've got something to say, all are welcome at the table, regardless of race, weight, or the measurement of your rims. 18+.
Sun., Sept. 9, 10 p.m.