With all due respect to the validity of the first impression, often an opinion needs time and repeated exposure to fully formulate.  Take Speak!, for example: He's growing a rattail, rapping over Sleigh Bells' "Infinity Guitars," and bringing a wasted guy in a Santa Claus suit to accompany him onstage.  Category?  Echo Park Hipster. 

But would an Echo Park hipster also rap over Lil Kim's "Crush on You," win emcee battles, and name a project, "I Have More Black Friends Than You I Bet You Money"? HIGHLY UNLIKELY. 

Last week in a sweaty, swaggy (he was wearing the jacket of a Florida retiree's snakeskin-silkscreened "dressy" windsuit; how could it be anything but?) performance at the Echo Curio, he performed "Ya Know," and the girls in ripped pantyhose and cowboy boots blithely danced right along. 

Afta-1's beat is half Barry White, half Bebel Giberto. Float on. 

Ya Know - Speak! from EROK on Vimeo.