P-Money and guests at Studio

By REBECCA BARRY

Despite doing dazzling things on the turntables at the DMCs, winning Producer of the Year at the music awards, and being the most likely white boy to pop up in everyone else's hip-hop music videos, it's seldom you'll see P-Money's name alone. Such is the fate of the superstar producer - you're always working on tracks for someone else.

So it was always going to be interesting to see how a gig with P as the headlining act would pan out. Especially considering New Zealand's biggest rap star was on the bill, and that just a few hours earlier, someone had asked if I was going to "the Scribe gig" that night.

Given the MC had squeezed his noticeably beefier frame into a T-shirt with his own face on it, it seemed a smart move on P-Money's behalf to get Not Many and Stand Up out of the way as soon as possible.

It also gave him a chance to show off his devastating dexterity, scratching and mashing up what have become two of this country's biggest hits.

A blat through Scribe 2001 showed how far the tables had turned in three years.

The pair have since expanded their repertoire of radio-friendly hip-hop anthems, thanks to P-Money's second album, Magic City.

Live, it's impossible not to "Raise yo' hands!" to Stop the Music or shout along to the jittery Turn It Up. (Come to think of it, the volume could have done with a bit of a boost.)

It was also liberating shouting a particularly rude word at the stage in response to the fiery interplay between PNC and Con Psy on Get Back.

But things started to lose momentum the moment they turned the notch down on Get Up Slow.

P-Money sounded almost relieved when the guests had gone home. "Now I'm going to do what I'm renowned for."

For the next couple of hours he played a straight DJ set. Out came the Snoop Dogg, Beyonce, Ciara and a bunch of huge club tracks, impeccably mixed into the next, as he kept the turntable trickery a little more subtle than perhaps he could have.

There's no doubt he has impeccable taste for a hip-hop hit. But the mood on the dancefloor didn't match the enthusiasm for which he was poring through his vinyl crate, and sometimes he seemed a little lost in his own world.

Things picked up a tad when he dropped some sultry breaks. But by then the dancefloor had emptied out so much you couldn't help but wonder what would have happened had those guest stars stayed on board.