It’s about 9 o’clock on a cold, rainy Friday night, and most of the Pittsburgh hip-hop scene is flooding into the basement of Cattivo, a divey concert venue and bar tucked away on a side street in Lawrenceville.

The space looks more like a local rap red carpet than a Choo Jackson show, with more hip-hop personalities on the floor than actual fans.

But tonight, they’re all fans. They’re all part of the scene, and though it has an uncertain future, it brought them together for at least a couple of more hours of music.

On the stage, Sabatasso spins an opening DJ set under his stage name, DJ Spillz. Between smash trap hits, he plays Wopo’s “Elm Street” — a show of respect to a rapper quite different from those in his artist collective, Rare Nation. It’s a simple but powerful display of unity for a scene struggling to find its moment.

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It’s easy to be worried about the future of rap here, especially when artists feel as though they don’t have anyone looking out for them. But almost everyone on the scene speaks of this camaraderie, of unity between artistic creators, as a saving grace and a reason to be optimistic. The Pittsburgh scene isn’t divided. Jasiri, whose music is laden with political and social messages, says he’s open to working with Hardo and Wopo. And Hardo welcomes that collaboration; “We haven't crossed paths yet, but we got forever, right?”

It’s a community where multiple styles of hip-hop can thrive, and even collaborate.

“People in the Hill, the people I know from McKeesport, Duquesne and Braddock — they're all in the same spot,” Sabatasso says. “You'd normally never catch those neighborhoods together unless you're there for a common reason, and that’s music.”

DJ Spillz (Steve Mellon/Post-Gazette)

As Sabatasso powers through a 90-minute set, an unassuming character walks into the room and navigates to the bar in the back. It’s Thomas Agnew, founder of the Pittsburgh-based JENESIS Magazine and co-founder of Boom Concepts, a performance space along the arts corridor on Penn Avenue in Garfield. Several artists and personalities see Agnew’s ventures as another reason to look excitedly toward the future; his magazine has been covering urban arts and culture since 2007, and his performance space, which opened in 2014, is on its way to becoming the city’s unofficial hip-hop hub.

Agnew won’t go as far as saying he wants Boom to be the next Shadow Lounge — “it’s a workspace” for artists of all types to create freely, he says — but the way he describes it is very reminiscent.

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“When you come here, it’s a bigger process than having a place to perform. It’s being able to have that mentorship and being able to talk to somebody, and learn how to build a strategy,” Agnew says. “At Boom, [artists] are able to shine up their performance and actually get their music out to the people.”

Boom is just one pillar of the underground infrastructure that supports the hip-hop scene here. Hybrid clothing boutiques like Time Bomb and Daily Bread, which also holds performances, are as much a part of local rap culture as the artists. There’s Social Status on Liberty, where Wopo can be seen handing over a stack of $20 bills to owner James Whitner in his “What U Know” video.

The shops are home to the latest in urban style trends, and their clothes pop up at almost every hip-hop event in the city, at the venues that hold rap shows frequently like Cattivo, Spirit Hall, and Rex Theater and Devils and Dolls in South Side. Mr. Smalls Theatre will host the most anticipated rap show of the spring when Wopo headlines the Millvale venue on April 15.

At this Cattivo event, another familiar presence is backstage preparing for a set of his own.