The show on Thursday, for the most part, carried on in this overly comfortable aura—P.O.S. performs a song and then schmoozes with the audience in a sort of Sunday brunch, relaxed manner. This type of balance, between rapping and chatting continued for the duration of the show and there were a few points during his performance when I wasn’t sure if I was at Lee’s Palace in Toronto, or in P.O.S. basement house party in Minneapolis. When a musician’s foot hits the stage, he is performing, he has become an actor, and we, below the stage, are the audience. In rock and roll, for the most part, the boundary between rock star and lowly audience member is established, almost dramatically clear that there is a difference between those who rock, and those who do not. For many people, engaging with the artist during a performance is very significant to their enjoyment of the show. For those people who prefer no boundaries between rock star and human, are usually the same people who enjoy fondue restaurants. They, in a sense, want to become the rock star, or the chef [if we are talkin’ bout fondue]. However, I am not one of those people. I steer clear from cooking my own food in restaurants, and when I go to a show, I want to watch the art, not become it.

Picture the cool uncle that you only see once or twice a year, and when he comes to visit, he’s laid back, and vulgar, and buys you gifts that your parents wouldn’t think of buying you. Now picture this scenario: this uncle loses his job and moves into your house and now, instead of the fun once or twice a year visits of vulgarity and gifts, he lives on your couch. P.O.S.’s performance became the latter scenario, a bit too comfortable, could have been one hep cat if he kept his distance, but we see him a bit too often. This is not to say, however, that he is not a talented MC. On the contrary, P.O.S. is shockingly talented. The shock, of course comes from the fact that hip hop is quite new to him, and until recently, P.O.S. was a punk musician in the band Om, which he describes as “Fast, sloppy pop punk.” I got a chance to talk to P.O.S three days prior to the show, and I was confounded by how a punk musician could make the transition from punk to rap so quickly. Usually it would take years of horrible mixed tapes and moronic add on lines in comp albums, but P.O.S. doesn’t seem to find struggle in bridging the gap between the two genres. “Punk and hip hop in spirit are the same I think. At their root, you don't really need anything to make them. To rap you need a pen, to start a punk band you need only the slightest idea of music and shit to bash on. Anybody can do them so anybody who wants to be a part of it can.” If, for P.O.S., punk music is about “shit to bash on” then he is completely correct in drawing a connection between punk and hip hop. In Hip hop music, a genre notorious for its diss tracks and verbal wars; it is almost taboo not to insult another artist at some point. I don’t think that’s what P.O.S. believes is the only connection between hip hop and punk. The sound of each genre aside, punk and hip hop both grew out of similar poverty stricken environments, however, while punk got angry, hip hop got the party started. For P.O.S., his drive to create music is simple. “My goal is to be able to do this and pay all my bills and provide for my family and not worry until it’s not fun….but I really love to make music.” Often, when a musician says that they “really love to make music” I can’t help but cringe, however, I feel that P.O.S. genuinely does love the music, or at least appreciate the music for what it is.

P.O.S.’ music is interestingly bouncy (west coastish) while maintaining a quasi funeral march melancholy. His rapping is layered by his surprisingly angelic/masculine voice, most likely from years as a choir boy, although this is completely speculative. He describes his sound as “lots of raw raps, kinda loud, bit of screaming, some singing.” Whatever P.O.S. does not come through during his live shows, he certainly makes up for in his talent and devotion. He enters into the hip hop business with a sort of hopeful diligence, that, he’ll work hard, and hopes that it all works out, but if not, it was fun while it lasted. It’s quite clear that P.O.S. is headed in the right direction, and, as he states, quite definitively, “I’m a rapper.”