At the 9:30 Club, No Complaints About Edan Portnoy

Who knew that one of the best examples of cutting-edge hip-hop would come in the form of a white kid dressed in a middle manager's thrift-store suit, sporting a hairdo that looks like a squirrel's nest? But after witnessing Edan Portnoy's 9:30 club performance Thursday, it's easy to believe that this Rockville native and Berklee College of Music dropout is bound for greatness: He can spit a rhyme, scratch a disc and build a beat -- often at the same time -- as well as pick a guitar and honk on the kazoo like a fly Renaissance guy.

Edan, who goes by his first name, was the opening act for the electronica/hip-hop act Prefuse 73, so he played for just 45 minutes, but he was the obvious star. Many friends and family members were in the audience -- "Welcome to Walter Johnson High School, circa 1997," he said -- and Edan even gave a shout-out to the "middle-aged ladies" in attendance.

The bulk of Edan's set came from his 2005 CD, "Beauty and the Beat," an artsy hip-hop album steeped in psychedelic rock. Edan's connection to mind-melting sounds and boom-bap beats was made most explicit on the heavy-stomping "Rock and Roll." The song featured fellow rapper Dagha filing through a stack of vintage LP covers -- a la Bob Dylan in the "Subterranean Homesick Blues" video -- by the likes of King Crimson, Pearls Before Swine, Led Zeppelin and more as Edan blurted lines that referenced the bands and record names.

Edan usually held a guitar delay pedal as he rapped, clicking it on to punctuate his wordplay with King Tubby-like explosions. He and Dagha gleefully abused the pedal throughout the set, and the duo ripped apart the English language on "The Science of the Two," an old-school-type battle blast that showcased their lyrical dexterity.

Maybe Edan's music is too far out for mainstream success, but he's a prodigy whose skills will always pay the bills.

-- Christopher Porter