Review: Chill Moody and Low Cut Connie team up in a hip-hop rock and roll mashup at the Mann

If the Mann Center was a Russian nesting doll, the Downstage at the Mann configuration — where Low Cut Connie and Chill Moody put on a fabulously fun hip-hop meets rock and soul show on Thursday — would be the tiniest doll of all.

The Mann can go big, holding up to 14,000 in its TD Pavilion amphitheater-plus-lawn set up, that will be used by James Taylor on Saturday and Erykah Badu on July 9.

The Fairmount Park venue can be even bigger, able to accommodate 30,000 or more on the expanded campus arrangement used for the Roots Picnic. The Skyline Stage, where Rebelution plays July 7, holds 6500.

In comparison, the Mann’s Downstage iteration is super intimate and unique. For Thursday’s show, the first of a three-part series curated by West Philly rapper and entrepreneur Moody, the Mann’s first community artist-in-residence, the stage itself was the venue.

Performers and a sold-out crowd of 300 gathered on the stage, which was transformed into a club. Before Moody and LCC took the stage, DJ Res spun hip-hop records accompanied by drummer Steve McKie.

At the back of the stage, visual artist Gianni Lee painted a white Cadillac Escalade — the carmaker is a sponsor of the Downstage series — in a striking, spare fashion that told a visual story of the five elements of hip-hop. (Those would be: rapping, DJing, break dancing, graffiti, and knowledge of the culture.) The car will be on the Mann campus throughout the summer.

Downstage debuted in 2022 with a Bill T. Jones dance performance. On Thursday, audience members could see what it looks like to a star performer, on stage and looking out at an empty amphitheater as they get ready to rock the house.

The 71-foot-by-56-foot space became a dance floor with a few high-top tables and a bar where Chill Moody’s Nicethings Hazy IPA, by South Jersey’s Flying Fish Brewing Co., sold for $14.

Moody opened the show, rapping as he walked through the crowd before joining DJ Get Up on stage. The Overbook High School graduate commanded the show with his easygoing, no-stress style. His programming at the Mann is a 50th anniversary of hip-hop celebration with a Philly focus.

“I don’t know how many times I rode by this venue, wondering if I ever was going to play here,” he said. He gave himself a well-deserved shout-out for being the Mann’s artist-in-residence and being “the first hip-hop artist with his own beer.”

And he stated his Chill mantra more than once: “May all your days be dedicated to progression. May all things be nice things. And always remember the main thing: Don’t get excited.”

It was soon time for Low Cut Connie to let loose. The six-piece band, led by piano playing schvitzing showman Adam Weiner, had music to accomplish in their typically joyous, action-packed set.

There’s a new LCC album called Art Dealers due in September that represents another leap forward in the narrative sophistication of Weiner’s songwriting, which will be accompanied by an Art Dealers documentary/concert film.

As Moody finished his 35-minute set, the band took the stage to the title cut to the band’s 2020 album Private Lives.

The opening lines of the song played like a credo for self-motivated creative artists, rock or hip-hop or otherwise: “Life is strange and you do what you gotta do just to survive,” Weiner sang. “You got your hustle, and you gotta know that baby, I got mine.”

Weiner and crew offered a tantalizing taste of Art Dealers, with the Ronnie Spector-inspired single “Are You Gonna Run?” and “Whips and Chains,” a raucous workout toward the end of the set.

By that time, the over-the-top front man had shed his denim jacket and ripped his undershirt to shreds and set about prowling the crowd, looking for hugs. If you don’t leave a Low Cut Connie show with a little Weiner sweat on you, you haven’t been truly immersed.

The band ripped it up with zeal on “Boozaphilia,” the song that proudly proclaims “We live in South Philly!” and which gave LCC a career boost when Barack Obama put it on his 2015 playlist.

But the real test of the evening was what would happen when LCC and Moody played together. Did the hip-hop / rock & soul mash-up really make musical sense?

It did. Weiner first planted the seeds with a cover of James Brown’s “I Don’t Mind,” emphasizing the Godfather of Soul’s role as a precursor of hip-hop.

Then Moody joined the band for the one-two punch of “Little Queen of New Orleans,” a song about a Crescent City drag queen that was followed by “Get Out My Life, Woman,” by the NOLA R&B singer Lee Dorsey who has been frequently sampled on rap records.

Moody, singing LCC’s praises in rhyme and improvising right on time, came back later for one more spirited collab on “Shake It Little Tina,” another Weiner drag queen tribute that’s also a celebration of the late Tina Turner. “Shake it, shake it Little Tina,” the rapper and rocker implored, and the audience obliged. Chill Moody’s Downstage series was off to a flying start.

On July 19, Moody will perform with the Philadelphia Orchestra on Darin Atwater’s composition “Black Metropolis” in a free show at the TD Pavilion. On Aug. 10, the Downstage shows will resume with Moody and Project Positive Dance Crew joined by DJ Aktive and DJ Cash Money in a Philly Pillars & Pioneers dance party. The series finishes with Moody and classical trio Time for Three on Oct. 5.