WHAT'S THE WORD? >>>

Last week I said we were lucky to have a live weekly hip-hop night.

I lied. We have two!

While the weekly hip-hop night I mentioned last week happens at El Perron every Wednesday night, there's also an all-ages cipher/freestyle session every Sunday at the Graffiti Garages on South Ninth and Broadway in Tacoma at 1 p.m.  And it's free.

This is how it works: World-famous DJ Ice Man drives his truck up in there and blasts beats. That's it, pure and simple. The events usually last until around 3 or 4 p.m. DJ Ice Man, originally from Brooklyn, says, "It's the purest outdoor cipher around here. It reminds me of back in the day at Washington Square Park. Kids ciphering just to do it, not to get big."

To read the rest of Josh Rizeberg's What's the Word? column, which also includes information on Juice Radio, click here.