Santa Cruz emcee Ross Rock is getting the whole 11-piece crew together on stage for the first time when Slop Opera plays Bocci’s Cellar on Feb. 7.
The crew in hip-hop used to be the standard, unlike today where most rappers are solo artists. Locals Slop Opera, who formed in 2004, have those old school hip-hop values—they’re overachievers, in fact, as most crews back in the day had three, four, maybe five guys. Slop Opera has eleven, which is even more than the ridiculously big Wu Tang Clan.
There’s so many that even one of the emcees, Ross Rock, had to take a moment to think about it.
“I think we’re at about 11 people,” he contemplated.
It’s understandable that he has a tough time keeping track. When they started, Slop Opera were only five guys: four emcees and one DJ.
“It gradually got bigger. We wanted to work with as many of our friends as we could—and we have a hard time saying no,” Rock says.
It was in the mid-2000s, with Slop Opera a five-piece, that they enjoyed their greatest period of success. Anyone involved in Santa Cruz’s hip-hop scene at the time knew Slop Opera, and they even did a seven-day West Coast tour with hip-hop legend KRS-One.
Two of the original emcees, Debris the Emcee and J Slie, moved to Oregon and Texas respectively. The remaining members of the group—Rock, Addamantium and DJ Mr. Bean—didn’t want to lose their big group energy, so they invited friends Aldoja and TurnThePage to join. They even cleared it with Debris and Slie, as they were still part of the crew.
“One of the best things about Slop Opera was to have four emcees on stage and a DJ. The thing I like about having a big crew is you’re never going to get boring,” Rock says.
More members have since joined the crew, and some have moved away from Santa Cruz. But once someone joins Slop Opera, they’re part of the crew, regardless of where they live.
These days, only Ross, Addamantium and TurnThePage live in Santa Cruz. Slop Opera doesn’t perform as often as they used to, but when they do, they round up whomever they can get. Their upcoming show on Feb. 7at Bocci’s Cellar will actually be the first time that all 11 members will share the stage.
With all those people, the crew doesn’t try to create a uniform group style. They let everyone’s individuality shine through.
“Not any two people in Slop Opera are alike,” Rock says. “With me you’re going to get some rapid fire double-time stuff. With TurnThePage, you’re going to get some really conscious stuff. With Debris, you’re going to get a lot of witty punchlines. With Adam [Addamantium], you’re going to get an abstract type of thing. Hence the name Slop Opera.”
Being in a crew isn’t the only aspect about Slop Opera that reflects their love of the ’90s heyday of hip-hop. They also have an actual DJ that scratches vinyl records, and their sound is reflective of hip-hop’s golden era: simple beats, samples, straightforward flow. The group has an off-kilter, wordy vibe about them more influenced by the underground rap crew of the ’90s than anything else: Latyrx, Black Star, Hieroglyphics.
“We’re not too electro, or anything like that, just keep it classic hip-hop. We wanted to keep it to the fundamentals and the roots of what hip-hop was. We view ourselves as pure hip-hop, boom bap,” Rock says.
Even though most of the members of Slop Opera have other things going on—jobs, families, solo albums and side projects—they continue to work on new material. They are currently working on a new mixtape.
Of course, who knows? If things keep going how they’ve been going, they could grow to 15 members.
“Slop Opera needs to be like Saturday Night Live. We just keep bringing in people like a fraternity and keep the name alive. Get people in that are hungry to do it,” Rock says.
Slop Opera plays Fri, Feb. 7 at Bocci’s Cellar in Santa Cruz; 9pm, $10. Ladies free before 10pm.
