While San Diego has a burgeoning music scene across the board, the local hip-hop community remains just under the radar, with plenty of talented performers but a very low media profile. One act that appears to be on the cusp of bucking that trend is MC Flow, who performs at The Casbah on Aug. 27.
Originally from New York, MC Flow, a.k.a. Abby Schwartz, relocated to San Diego in 2000 to get her master’s degree in traditional Chinese medicine.
“When I still lived in NY, I worked as a Web writer and kept a picture of a San Diego beach on my computer as my screen-saver,” she said. “For me, New York City was claustrophobic and I dreamed of moving somewhere warmer, with better access to nature, [as well as] a more laid-back attitude [and] lifestyle.”
Though she had written poetry and fiction while on the East Coast, she had never performed until she arrived locally.
“My first performance here was at Claire de Lune’s coffee shop at open-mic night,” she recalled. “My hands were shaking so badly that my paper was jumping all around.”
She found the local music scene welcoming.
“It wasn’t hard to get [involved] here because, at that time, there were a bunch of popular open-mic nights taking place.”
MC Flow is now a part of a hip-hop networking group called The Community.
Some of Schwartz’s earliest exposure to hip-hop came in a roundabout way.
“I went to a ton of bar mitzvahs,” she remembered. “I went to Hebrew Day School, so there were a few years there where I went to sometimes two or three a weekend. In New York, bar and bat mitzvahs are no joke. People had dancers and DJs and really elaborate parties. Old-school hip-hop was played at many of those.”
She cites The Streets, Lady Sovereign and Peaches as current inspirations but still considers the artists she listened to as a teenager, such as Tribe Called Quest and Pete Rock, among her favorites.
“I am still very much influenced by the hip-hop of that time,” Schwartz said. “[But] these days, I like a lot of UK music because I think it has that same playfulness and sense of humor as old-school hip-hop.”
On her own tunes MC Flow works in collaboration with Taylor Tay, who lays down the beats Schwartz’s lyrics fly over.
“Usually, Taylor writes the music first and then I listen to it and write the lyrics,” she said. “Most of the time it’s pretty spontaneous. Writing rhymes comes pretty easily to me, so I can write verse after verse without a problem.”
Subject matter may vary, but she considers every word important.
“My lyrics are mostly inspired by a love of wordplay,” Schwartz remarked. “When I listen to music, I always concentrate on the lyrics. So with my songs, I try to keep the rhymes quick, twisted and playful.”
MC Flow’s best-known tune, “Def Perception,” is actually a collaboration of sorts, with another local artist, Jason Mraz.
“The guitar riff the song is based on is from his song ‘Common Pleasure,'” she confirmed. The pair have performed the song together live, an experience Schwartz described as “surreal and awesome.”
MC Flow will release her first CD, “Incredible,” this fall on Cat Dirt Records, but it’s clear that live performance is where her heart lies.
“My favorite thing about being a performer is definitely when women, especially young women, come up to me after shows or find me on the Internet and tell me that they are empowered or inspired by my songs,” she said.
For his part, FM94.9 DJ Tim Pyles considers MC Flow one of his favorite acts in town and has frequently spun “Def Perception” on his show.
“She’s reminiscent of what I like about hip-hop; it’s fun, party music,” he said. Pyles is particularly impressed with her ascent in the local music community.
“She came out of nowhere, in a town not known for hip-hop, and stole the show,” he enthused.
MC Flow performs at The Casbah, 2501 Kettner Blvd., on Monday Aug. 27. Admission is free and open to the public age 21 and up. For more information visit www.casbahmusic.com.
