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by Timothy Hoffman

April 10th, 2019, Two Hip Hop heavyweights and an up and coming emcee took the stage at The Catalyst in Downtown Santa Cruz to deliver electrifying and passionate performances. The artists performing were Cojo, Locksmith, and Murs. For those of you who remember, I covered locksmiths show at the Catalyst last year when he was promoting for his then new release Olive Branch, and returned to promote his latest release Ali. Cojo, who released his first project Iron Mic earlier this year, gave a fiery and energetic performance that really set the tone for the rest of the evening. Locksmith took to the stage shortly after to perform several high energy tracks including songs such as Nobody, Advice to My Younger Self, No Lies, and Stars with Murs. Murs who release his album A Strange Journey Into the Unimaginable last year, delivered on his status as one of the greatest underground hip hop artists of all time. During his set he performed songs off his newest album such as Whiskey & Patron and Melancholy, and other popular tracks from his earlier discography such as Yesterday & Today, Everything, as well as Okey Dog, which details the story about one of the toughest and most free thinking people he knows. Murs also did impressions of other emcees in the middle of his show, rapping their lyrics and mimicking their mannerisms with near spot on detail. Overall the whole night was a fantastic display of everything that hip hop has to offer, and I cannot wait to see Murs, Locksmith, and Cojo again!