Michael Donovan photo
In the film world, science fiction sequels come pretty regularly, and a hit always spawns a follow-up. But in the hip-hop world, sci-fi is still an anomaly, and despite having a cult hit with their self-titled debut album, Deltron 3030 has been promising a follow-up to their futuristic concept album for years. At long last, “Event 2” dropped two months ago and the trio has gone on the road to promote it, touring with two different backing bands, depending on the venue, one a rock combo, the other an orchestral unit. The former comes to the Majestic Ventura Theater this Wednesday.
Individually, the members have their own careers. Lead rapper Del tha Funky Homosapien (Teren Delvon Jones) was a founding member of Oakland’s Hieroglyphics; Dan the Automator (Dan Nakamura) rose to fame producing Kool Keith and soon became know for his odd, humorous use of samples, and being a worthwhile collaborator with Prince Paul, DJ Shadow, and Gorillaz (where Del became the voice on several hit singles); and turntablist Kid Koala (Eric San) who became a fixture of Ninja Tune records for his use of non-traditional samples, and who has also teamed up with Dan as the smooth group Lovage. So these guys are busy. But as early as 2004, Kid Koala mentioned new material was being worked on for Deltron 3030’s follow-up. This continued for so many years it almost became a running joke among hip-hop fans. So, why’d it take so long?