Recap Dumate at The Annex

Wednesday night's "Day After Change" party at The Annex left Decider with a curious observation: The election is over, President Obama is sworn in, and his celebrity still continues to foam rabidly in the form of commemorative T-shirts. While the President is faced with monumental expectations, the hip-hop show proved that people have different ideas of what President Obama expects from the country (beyond wearing his swag). The Crest's A.D., for example, referred to his solo set as "putting in my volunteer work."

When Decider arrived, there were roughly three people in attendance as Madison DJ Vilas Park Sniper spun two turntables through a tightly knit set of '80s and '90s hip-hop jams ranging from the stylish wit of Slick Rick's "Children's Story" to Nas's piano-laden political opus "If I Ruled The World." Opening the show was Tefman, one fourth of Madison's L.O.S.T. S.O.U.L.S, breaking away from his group's hedonistic street-smarts for a short and unbalanced set, mixing self-conscious lines like, "This year I'ma try to change / I'ma do me you should do the same" with the tired objectification of "Tell me how long it'll take to get you home."

Next, A.D. of The Crest climbed his way out of a sluggish opening freestyle (which found him rhyming "rappers" with "Packers" and name-dropping President Obama) and ultimately succeeded with set closer "A D i A M," a brilliant mess of complex flows over a sped up sample of Billy Squier's "The Big Beat." Between rappers the show's promoter, Gary Knowledge, got on stage and gave aimless praise to people "doing their damn thing," as DJ Double D spun Young Jeezy's "My President," a polyamorous anthem to both his rims and Barack Obama, for the second time that night.

Following A.D., bald-heads Siggie Sedge and Cory "OD" Park, two of Madison's 9 Delegates, took the stage, spitting out swaggering, air-tight air-tight rhymes. After the duo closed with a fiery tune titled "Don't Fuck With My Studio Session," Dumate charged the stage, blending the cerebral charm of Black Star with the powerful organic groove of The Roots. From opening number "Violince" onward, the dread-headed drummer-singer Jah Boogie used his Rasta vibrato for passionate vocal hooks while keeping heads nodding as his stylish rhythms latched into the diverse, throbbing bass tones of Bobby Peru. Meanwhile, producer Man Mantis used both a sampler and a turntable to spread a layer of sped-up R & B and soul samples underneath the rousing interaction between rappers Dudu Stinks and D.L.O.

The Madisonians played a set comprised entirely of unreleased material, which they are readying for an upcoming, untitled album. After Dumate's set closed with a brilliantly thumping new track entitled "Sahara," D.L.O. offered his own insight on the Obama presidency, saying that it doesn't matter that he is "half-white" or "black," and that we need to stop patting ourselves on the back for voting and actually “get behind the President,” making our own changes.