By VIVIENNE WONG
alltherage@thestar.com.my

NOW we know EDM (electronic dance music) is like the best thing to happen to the party scene since roller disco died. But no matter what the trend is, there’s one genre that will never fail to get a good party started – hip hop.

After our interview with the good people over at hip hop collective Raising The Bar, we asked them what clubs play good hip hop, y’know, so we could have our own Off The Hook hip hop club hop. And yes, that rhymes.

The first place they’d recommend, obviously, is their own Raising The Bar night at The Bee in Publika, Kuala Lumpur (c’mon guys, shameless plug, much?).

But to be fair, it doesn’t get more legit than Raising The Bar, where it’s not just about music and MCs and DJs, but also the other pillars of hip hop – b-boying, beatboxing and graffiti. You’ll also get big names like Joe Flizzow, Hunny Madu and Altimet performing alongside top unsigned hip hop artistes.

Masia One and DJ Lethal Skillz performing at the Stussy and Raising The Bar collaboration.

It takes place once a month, and you can find out the exact dates by following them on Facebook (facebook.com/RTBMY). The good thing is, admission is free for everyone.

The second place Raising The Bar recommended was Nagaba Kuala Lumpur, which has a great hip hop night every Wed and Sat from 11pm to 3am with DJ Ash and DJ Nazkimo on the decks.

DJ Nazkimo spins at the ground floor on Wednesdays for the hip hop night at Nagaba KL.

On Wednesday, the hip hop happens on the ground floor, which has a cozy and relaxed vibe. Then on Saturday (RM30 cover charge with complimentary drink), the spinning takes place on the rooftop area. Good hip hop music and a great view – what more could you ask for?

Side note: when the 2014 Future Music Festival Asia was cancelled, the highly-acclaimed hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan (scheduled to perform at the festival) performed in Nagaba instead.

After Nagaba, we went to check out Sultan Lounge at Mandarin Oriental, where they have a hip hop segment as part of their Elite Thursdays. It also happened to be their ladies night, which means a free flow of certain drinks for the ladies from 10pm till 1am.

Being Sultan Lounge, the venue was super classy; but the only problem was by midnight, the hip hop started giving way for mostly EDM stuff. Nothing wrong with that; you’ll just have to come early if you want your dose of hip hop.

Resident DJ, DJ Sticky Sicx (right) is joined by a guest DJ every week at Sultan Lounge. They take turns playing R&B, EDM and Latin salsa.

The last stop on our hip hop trail was Lust KL, which one DJ told us was “the home of Kuala Lumpur hip hop”.

Their Chocolate High nights every Friday are packed with hip hop lovers as DJ Adrian plays them old school hip hop early on, before handing the decks over to resident DJ Biggie, who’ll dish out tracks from artistes like 2 Chainz, Drake, Jay-Z and Kanye West.

Who needs lasers when you have these much cooler fluorescent ropes above the dance floor at Lust?

The hip hop venue has also seen its fair share of international artistes like Bangkok Invaders, DJ Whoo Kid (50 Cent’s touring DJ), DJ Kast One (from top American hip hop radio station Hot 97) and many more.

So after three straight nights of hip hop partying last week, our verdict is that if you want to just dance and go loco, sure, any party will do just fine. But if you wanna do all that and feel like you’re part of a community that’s all about good music and art, then give a hip hop joint a try.