Rapper E-Turn just released one of Orlando music’s most important milestones this year

THIS LITTLE UNDERGROUND
E-Turn release party and the debut of Whale Team Six, Iron Cow, Oct. 12

As a strong work by a great homegrown artist on a groundbreaking national label, the recent official release of E-Turn’s Young World is one of the most noteworthy, historical and important milestones this year for Orlando music. As the freshest face on the illustrious Fake Four roster, E-Turn has been on the grind out there on the national circuit, most recently on shows with KRS-One and members of the Wu-Tang Clan. But this release event was her spotlight, on her home turf, on the occasion of her major accomplishment.
E-Turn has never done a show halfway or on autopilot. Her performances – even the smallest supporting ones – have always been in-the-moment things of total commitment and stunning, sometimes upstaging, technique. They’re her stock in trade. But for her big hometown release event, she celebrated, she slayed and she elevated.
For all this moment represents for her, though, E-Turn’s potential impact is even greater than any personal achievement. On purely objective performance terms, she’s a powerful voice, a freestanding natural force with chops of steel, unfuckwithable. But set against the current groundswell of a rising feminine revolution, her expression takes on new volume, velocity and – hopefully – inevitability. She’s the mirror to some of the most pressing issues of our time. Add in that commanding voice and you’ve got a modern icon. She’s got the goods, the perspective and the fire – a complete vessel of power and relevance.

Supporting was a parade of credentialed locals like battle champ Madd Illz and next-up Second Subject star Sean Shakespeare.
The surprise of the night was the fresh debut of Whale Team Six, a supergroup project of Solillaquist mastermind DiViNCi, Orlando legend Beef Wellington and Maxwell Drummey, who was half of art-pop act Chester French and a fellow player with DiViNCi in Lauryn Hill’s band.
Without a single rehearsal beforehand, the trio of seasoned pros launched into a nonstop and completely improvised 30-minute odyssey of astral hip-hop jazz that rides that all-night frequency. Look out for these guys.
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Email Bao: baolehuu@orlandoweekly.com

This article appears in Oct 10-16, 2018.