Early on a Friday evening, L in Japanese is doing something he's famous for in Chapel Hill. He's hustling.
Sitting in Carrboro's dimly lit Orange County Social Club, he's just finished recounting his goals as a local hip-hopper and his past adventures across the big pond in Paris, wide eyes glowing. He's staring at his computer screen, offering a sample of a track he's working on. But as many in the Triangle do, a passerby recognizes him--a unique sort, a tall drink of water with flat dreads drooping from his brow like palm fronds. He looks up from his laptop's screen and punches in her e-mail address. He offers his usual banter, and she is off.
It's one in a day's worth of similar interactions. L crafts beats and rhymes, and promotes shows, like Sunday's Count Bass D and Insight at the Cat's Cradle. But the crux of his ability to make hip hop happen in Chapel Hill comes from his fierce friendliness.
"You've gotta really get in there and have a great attitude," he says, smiling...
