When hip-hop originated up east, the only venues that would book these acts were also the only clubs that would book punk rock bands. Because both movements started in the same place and time, there has always been an intermingling of ideas, if not sound. Both forever joined at the dislocated hip of skate culture, both outcasts that changed the world.

Pandelerium has taken advantage of this collaboration, drawing from a wide variety of influences to converge in a sonic collage. Glam, Punk, Funk, Jazz and Blues gets chopped, screwed down, sped up, chewed up and spit back out as pure Hip-Hop while maintaining a unique sound. Emcee Original Sin has a background in mostly punk rock. As the former lead guitar in the St. Louis Punk outfit The Spiders, he has won many local accomplishments, including the RFT Award for Best New Artists in 2000. DJ Innovation holds a hip-hop edge. He’s worked with local groups Lk, Midwest Avengers, So n So, The Elements, Wik Affilliation, Maddahoochie, and Mr. I.

Pandelerium provides an energetic and visual show that guarantees to keep a crowd on their toes…

Shawn Lynch (DJ Innovation), Zach Chasnoff (Original Sin) collectively known as Pandelerium – are bringing hip-hop and punk back together again in the St. Louis music scene. With both genres starting off as renegade outsiders of the main stage – booked as unconventional shows in back-alley venues – this marriage of forms seems to be a natural one. Pandelerium melds both genres into one vigorous stage show that must be seen to be believed. “What sets us apart is that we bring the energy of punk to the hip-hop stage,” says Sin.

With Innovations background in grimy, deep underground hip-hop beats and Sin steeped in music theory and punk, the group has commingled ideas to become a formidable team. “I kind of pushed my way into the punk mind-set, and Zach pushed their way into my hip-hop mind-set. We got each other to rethink our perceptions of each other’s styles,” says Innovation. Born at the crossroads of punk and hip-hop roots, Pandelerium is bringing the former renegade styles out of the back-alley and onto the main stage together as one cohesive sound.

But they don’t stop there. Having gained mainstream acceptance, hip-hop now has the ability to transform into a variety of sounds the same way rock did in the 1970’s. With an ear for versatility, the group combines both mainstream and underground beats with prosodic lyrics to produce a wall-shaking effect that carries real messages. According to Sin, the lyrical leanings of the group tend to be “more poetic, more introspective” than the average listener might associate with hip-hop. He continues that he writes content that “is true to myself. I write about what I experience – what I’m about.”

Taking cues from stacks that include blues, jazz, rock, punk, and everything in between, Pandelerium never leaves the audience in the doldrums of predictability. The energy and momentum of the show, combined with audio surprises found in each new song, always leaves the onlookers guessing. Innovation says the group “wants our audience to constantly be wondering, ‘What could they possibly come up with next?’”

Sin agrees. “We want to be like The Beatles of hip-hop,” he says. “Those guys combined parts from of all kinds of music. You never knew exactly what you were going to hear, but you knew you were going to like it.”

-Amanda Wells (Literal Chaos Magazine)

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