Melissa Traynor / Editor-in-Chief

Jams were provided all around, Sodexho’s finest finger foods were laid out on a large buffet and there was even a stationary, but colorful light display for last Thursday’s hip-hop concert, but the crowd was absent.

It was an honorable effort on the part of campus radio station WFCS 107.7 for something pulled together with a little over a week to spare and commendable informal efforts to spread the word.

With Facebook promotions and a few posters, as well as a large word-of-mouth phenomenon to garner “yes” RSVPs from students, the underground hip hop show, dubbed “the future of entertainment,” pulled off an audience between 70 and 80 people. They filtered in through the doors of Alumni Hall– heading to the food first – though the Facebook event page indicated there would be 117 “confirmed” guests.

With a lineup assembled from local hip-hop artists, including CCSU students, Thursday’s show included Colchester, Conn.’s Kamaal Lowen, a.k.a. Kamoflage and Kwame Dankwa as well as local trio Grown tone, QP and Jaymelodius.

Headliner Milo Sheff – of the landmark case in 1989 that spurred the No Child Left Behind act – who is now a rapper in the Hartford, Conn. capped off the night with a smaller set. It was catchy and  referenced drug habits, not drug addictions, but he played for a relatively empty Alumni Hall.

Sheff expects to have his new album Table of Contents out relatively soon and he plans on a few more shows in the area, possible with another appearance at CCSU.

He was impressed the by night’s lineup and was pleased by the mix of independent artists.

“The lineup was dope for Connecticut music,” Sheff said.

The man behind the turntables, WFCS’s Earle Nelson, a.k.a. DJ B-EZ, was spinning throughout each set.

As Sheff’s set was coming to a close, one of the night’s previous performers Kamoflage broke off into his own free flow performance, assembling his small entourage out in the hall of the student center around the front of the bookstore.

QP and Grown Tone joined him, along with rappers named Young D and El-Sun from Harlem, N.Y. and lyrics were flowing as steady as the beats from someone’s backpack-turned-boom-box set on the floor in the middle of the pack.

They continued their personal and certainly more intimate show, incorporating passersby as they could. One student named Lucian joined in to lend his vocal chords into the mix for on-the-spot beat boxing.

Kamoflage, flanked by others measuring up in the spontaneous freestyle session, spoke about the pleasures of college life from wasting hours playing on X-Box to beer pong.

Despite early problems with the microphones as the main problem of the night, Nelson believed Thursday saw a decent turnout.

“For the simple fact that  turnout was based on word of mouth, pretty damn good,” he said.

Hip-Hop Shows Draws Talent, Not Crowd from The Recorder on Vimeo.