Cursive lights up The Spike at Bad Pen II

Cursive Adonis’ (aka Billy Caldwell) personality comes across so understated and effortless it’s almost unfair.

He shouldn’t be able to turn out packed houses while rapping to his shadow and staring at his sneakers during opening slots for ‘90s hip-hop legends Black Sheep and The Pharcyde. And it shouldn’t be just as easy for Cursive to follow a heavy metal band at a punked-out Talotti’s 211 and lackadaisically meander through his set to collect props.

No bling, no shiny shoes, no slick dance steps, no knock-knock jokes between songs. Sporting an attitude like he really couldn’t care less, feeling at home on any stage and armed only with his words and a mike, Cursive is a crowd favorite in the local hip-hop scene.

With a complex rhyme flow and dark-lit witty wordplay, Cursive lets his pen bleed at Bad Penmanship II – a coalition of local and regional rappers converging tonight at 7 at The Spike Coffee House Underground, 122 S. Monroe St. Also on the bill is much of the cast from last year’s original Bad Pen, including Portland’s Soul Rhettoric, Seattle’s Elemental Science Project and Spokane’s Freetime Synthetic, Buckeye McMillan, Supervillain and more. The suggested donation is $5 at the door.

Members of the vast OMT crew, Cursive, Soul Rhettoric and Synthetic are sitting on full-length albums set to drop within months.

Cursive has been an official member of OMT for less than two years, but he grew up with some of its founding members, including Terms One, who has been making waves with his hop-hop in Hawaii.

OMT – which stood for Open Minded Terrorists before 9/11, and since changed to Our Mothers Tried and Open Minded Teachers – is so deep in numbers Cursive didn’t meet Rhettoric until the first Bad Pen.

“OMT is like a large movement, I don’t even know all the cats in it,” said Cursive, 23.

Cursive has been rhyming for as long as he can remember, but he didn’t take it seriously until high school.

“I thought every group of kids grew up rhyming. When we rolled to a party, everyone was freestylin’. We’d just go around the circle,” Cursive said. “I was always writing as a form of expression. Now it’s to the point where people are saying I need to do an album.”

Cursive’s yet-to-be-titled debut album is due this spring with appearances by Synthetic and Terms and production by local powerhouses The Side Project’s Criminal Dougie, Laxxx Luster and Poons.