Iller than Theirs

Mercury Lounge; Sun 29

The video for the Iller than Theirs song “Razor Bumps” is, in essence, a typical rap-film sequence: Some tough-looking dudes walk into a neighborhood establishment, and a few what’s-ups later, violence ensues. But this is no shiny-gun gangsta scene—it’s an escalating food fight in a Park Slope diner, a spoof on the fake-ass sensational stuff. Iller MCs Krayo and Tone Tank play waiter and dishwasher, roles in line with the workaday rhymes on their new self-titled debut album. Spun off from Brooklyn’s Nuclear Family, a Wu-Tang-style  crew of childhood friends, the duo makes tracks that rail on all manner of unrealness.

Though Krayo and Tone Tank are rich with talent, their verses hint at their lack of hard cash. “Me, I’m just trying to make rap and make rent at the same time, you know,” says Krayo in the intro of “To Be Ill,” a three-minute manifesto with a homemade beat and the kind of pitched-up soul sample you might hear in a Kanye West hit. Onstage, the two MCs hardly stop for air, delivering relentless rhymes about things that matter to them such as women, friendships and, of course, hip-hop. They may not have Bentleys to roll up in, but they brag about their own skills with more passion than so many megamillionaires.

—Christina Black