The Deal: Hip-hop is alive in Charlotte, but is it well? Local show featuring acts from the Queen City and surrounding areas hope to show the scene is in stable condition.

The Good: The flow of Anderson, S.C., native J. Johnson (myspace.com/jjohnsonsoundrebel) won everyone over when he flipped his own song and included members of the audience in his freestyles. Nelace (myspace.com/nelace) performed a show that got steadily better and nearly tore the house down with his new song "Turn It Up A Notch." Ty Bru (myspace.com/tybru) and Ty Writer (myspace.com/soulfulmusicproductions) blended soulful sounds with pure hip hop lyricism and proved why they'll be opening for Public Enemy in August. Levi Stress had the energy to go more than 20 minutes on one song! Who cares how good the sound was, that takes energy.

The Bad: Promotion! I can say I saw three of the most talented local artists I've seen in a really long time, but nobody else really got to see them outside of the other artists, girlfriends, smoothie cravers and neighborhood wanderers. Shitty sound featuring the usual mic feedback and ridiculously loud speakers that tell you professionals aren't working the audio. One local artist, who we'll leave unnamed, (but will tell you hustles out the Circle K on East Blvd.) needs to go back to lab; hot beats + below average lyrics = below average song.

The Verdict: Great show, poor location, poor promotion. But definitely check out all these artists' MySpace pages to get a taste of what they're all about.