Brother Reade grasps the basics on 'Rap Music'

Tucked away near the bottom of the bill for Saturday's Neighborhood Festival -- the indie dance party at Exposition Park mounted by DJ Steve Aoki and his Dim Mak label -- is Brother Reade, an L.A. duo that makes old-school hip-hop which, at a glance, might seem out of place at an event featuring such electro hotshots as the Faint, Spank Rock and Chromeo.

"We're thrilled that we're attached to the L.A. club scene," says rapper Jamz (born James Joliff), who, with DJ Bobby Evans (born Erin Garcia), released their Brother Reade debut, "Rap Music," this summer. "It's one community that's latched on to our music in a wonderful way. Then again, in the beginning hip-hop was four-on-the-floor disco songs with guys rapping over it."

Jamz and Evans are boyhood pals from Winston-Salem, N.C., who reconnected in L.A. after moving west. Originally drawn to rock, Jamz expanded his diet quickly. "Kids in small towns are kinda music omnivores," he says. "We were into anything that wasn't being sold to us."

In Los Angeles, the pair's skills became quite the attraction at loft parties, and they signed a deal with Record Collection. Unlike a lot of modern hip-hop, the album was made without any guest turns. It's a throwback "to an era when things weren't as industrialized," Jamz says. "Our intention is to take a classicist approach to rap, but not to ignore the last 20 years of the movement."

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