Living Legends reunite for ‘How the Grouch Stole Christmas’

If the holidays are for going home again, the 10th edition of “How the Grouch Stole Christmas” tour features the homecoming of homecomings.

Living Legends, one of the leading lights of independent hip-hop in California, is reuniting for a two-week run with stops in the Bay Area, where the group got its start.

“I love it, and (it’s) something I’ve missed in the years that we’ve all taken a step back from the Living Legends,” says Oakland native and Legends founding member Corey Scoffern, best known as the Grouch.

Living Legends was created in the mid-’90s as a crew of independent rappers from up and down the state.

The eight MCs — the Grouch, fellow NorCal rappers Luckyiam, Sunspot Jonz, Aesop and Bicasso as well as Murs, Eligh and Scarub from Los Angeles — recorded a string of albums, EPs and mix tapes as a collective, and numerous more records as separate, smaller groups within the whole.

[...] Scoffern, who now lives in Maui, currently works extensively with Eligh as the Grouch & Eligh, or G&E, and in the past has put out music with Luckyiam as the duo known as CMA and shown up for a guest verse on solo albums of every other member.

[...] even though the band hasn’t released a full-length album since 2005’s “Classic,” hasn’t gone on an extended tour since 2007 and officially went on a hiatus after a performance at the 2012 Paid Dues Festival (founded by group member Murs), it was hard to imagine that a crew with nearly two decades in the game would stay separated forever.

Not only did the Grouch feel comfortable onstage with the crew — “like riding a bicycle,” he says — but it also scratched an itch that he’s had since the band’s hiatus.

“How the Grouch Stole Christmas” is celebrating its growth from a one-off performance at Sweets Ballroom in Oakland to a much-anticipated tour during a time of year that can sometimes feel devoid of non-holiday-related entertainment.