On Friday night, a slimmed down version of Rock the Bells took place at the Showbox. The venue seemed mostly packed by the end of the night with plenty of people on hand eager to see the return of Talib Kweli and DJ Hi-Tek in their original group, Reflection Eternal. But before they went on stage, there were a couple of line-up shifts that initially made things screwy. For starters, Wu-Tang’s Raekwon canceled his performance (or didn’t make his flight, depending on which story you believe) and thus was not in attendance. Considering they needed to stretch the sets out rather than condense them, it was weird how Khingz’s set was cut down from 30 minutes to 15 minutes. And although he was supposed to perform second, he ended up opening the show, leaving little time for the debut of the LivinYard project (featuring Khinz, Gabriel Teodros, and Nam). I missed their relatively short 3-4 song set since it started at 8 p.m. sharp, but I did catch some of Project Lionheart’s performance. From what I hear, that Seattle group usually does shows as a full band with drums, bass, percussion, guitars etc., on stage. But given their relatively short set, they chose not to bring all of their players and the music was slightly underwhelming because of it.But it’s hard to judge the group solely as a three-piece, which is how they performed on Saturday night, with just a DJ, vocals, and percussion. They’re playing at the Tractor Tavern the night before Bumbershoot as a proper band so folks should check out that show if you’re curious about them.After Project Lionheart finished, freestyle wiz Supernatural took the stage and rhymed about every object in sight from gym shoes, lighters, baseball hats, $100 bills, and anything else that people placed in front of him. The natty dread MC calls himself the “freestyle king” and he earned that title over the weekend. Not only was he impressive with most of his improv raps, but he impersonated Busta Rhymes and Biggie Smalls during a track called “Three MCs” as well. I can’t remember who the third rapper was that he impersonated — if anyone remembers, please shout it out. He also had DJ legend Pete Rock spinning behind him. Elzhi of Slum VillageAfter Supernat finished up, Slum Village hit the stage and a weird feeling came over me. Titus “Baatin” Glover was supposed to be rapping at the Showbox on Friday alongside the group he helped create. But he passed away on August 1st and a lot of Slum Village fans were their with a heavy heart. Geo of the Blue Scholars mentioned that he felt like he was going to get emotional when the music started. Almost to circumvent the obvious elephant in the room, Pete Rock came back onstage, sent a hardy “rest in peace” to J. Dilla and Baatin, and then Slum Village spent the next 45 minutes moving forward. They didn’t get long winded in their tribute to fallen members of the group, they just rocked the fuck out in their honor instead. They played most of the hits from Slum’s classic Fan-Tas-Tic Vol 2. album, and some of the Detroit Deli jams as well. They’ve got a new album dropping at the end of September, and after their show on Friday night, I overheard Talib Kweli agree to be contribute a few verses to the project.Talib Kweli of Reflection EternalRather than go on and on about Slaughterhouse, the battle rap super group of Royce Da 5’9, Joe Budden, Joelle Ortiz, and Crooked I, let’s suffice to say they were exactly what you’d expect. They’re all talented MCs and typically rap with a well-earned chip on their shoulder, but their set didn’t blow me away. Most folks knew what they were getting and that’s that. Reflection Eternal was a different story. The duo gave fans a lot to smile and cheer about as they essentially played a set of greatest hits.They touched on everything from crowd favorites “Move Somethin'” and “Eternalists” to “Train of Thought” and some of Hi-Tek’s material from Hi-Teknology. Ten years ago, the duo defined the underground backpack movement, and although both are quick to distance themselves from that now, for an hour on Friday night, they took fans back to the glory days of what true school hip-hop was all about.