Sankofa "The Tortoise Hustle" www.obeseamerica.com
(reposted from www.rapreviews.com)
Stephen "Sankofa" Brydon does not have a typical hip hop pedigree. He was born in Australia, spent some time in Minnesota and L.A., and wandered around on the Appalachian trail before settling in Fort Wayne, Indiana. That's a long way from Queensbridge. His nom-du-rap refers to a symbol from the Cote d'Ivoire of a bird looking backwards, which means "looking backwards to move forwards." It's a fitting name for the rapper, since he has one foot in the old school, and one foot in the future. "The Tortoise Hustle" is his latest album, coming on the heels of several underground albums and singles.
Sankofa has a deep, commanding delivery in the same vein as Brother Ali. He comes out with both guns blazing on album opener "The Bottom Line," a harsh indictment of the record industry. Over an old-school funk beat, Sankofa booms:
"You don’t exist to make music, you live to make a profit
Selling your advertising space but I know it’s never thought of
I wish you best of luck in all your demographic research
But when you follow the trends you’ll end up leaving feet first
Who are the people making money at radio stations?
It's not the disc jockeys, the ones who live shoddy
It’s the people selling all the advertising slots
The fraternizing jocks with their status climbing flock
Who have got expense accounts in dense amounts
Mileage from driving the cars that are stylish
Benefits, got to have the pearly white gates gleam
Backroom deals are done dirty and they stay clean
Hedging bets putting chick’s drinks on my tab
Write it off to corporate slush funds, thinking to stab
Blink and it’s grabbed, another ass another day passes
Thankful I’m a shark in a world content to stay passive
My reign’s acid it isn't about to cease quick
So spin another clone trying to rap when the beat kicks
You're not a listener, your just a customer
And that's the bottom line"
In my mind, there are three things you need to make a successful hip hop song: you have to have something to say, you have to say it in a clever way, and you have to have a fat beat. Sankofa nails all three on "The Bottom Line," and on most of the tracks on "The Tortoise Hustle." He's dropping an important message, and does it with a lot of skill and style. The production, handled by El Keter, sounds like classic James Brown, and may even be live instruments (there is a picture of Sankofa performing with a band in the insert). There are several other tracks on "The Tortoise Hustle" that have a similar funk sound. The album is rounded out by some mellower, more introspective tracks like "They All Die, which is about religious wars, and the title song, which has a piano loop and handclap beat, and sees Sankofa exploring life as an underground and underpaid rapper. "The Tortoise Hustle" also shows that Sankofa is a little older and wiser than some of the young bucks out there:
"Cause they’re prone to say things which I don’t believe
And I’m known to say things that they won’t repeat
So I guess we’re even in a childish kind of way
Both deaf with conviction-listen"
Sankofa is almost completely free of the fronting and posturing that is synonymous with hip hop. He lays himself out as a struggling rapper who loves his wife and his music, and hates haters and the industry. He isn't even getting his grind on-this album was recorded over a year while he was planning his wedding, and is being released as 250 numbered tins (and also digitally on itunes). Clearly, going platinum is not high on Sankofa's priorities. He also tackles subject matter that most rappers don't deal with, like when he takes on America's obsession with underage starlets on "Shiny":
"It’s the cyclical nature making the sick smarter
Who cares about Alicia Silverstone when puberty hit harder?
A nixed artist, varnished, underaged vargas,
Wispy Disney starlet, risky business with a prissy little smarm
it’s harmless
fun and games, child’s play with grown up customers
Trusted perks and thus disgust is blurred, you must’ve heard
The Olsen twins, talking about centerfolds and such
When they’re old enough, barely legal, evil rolling up
Who sold the smut, the same who profit, you got it
And you wonder how some young girls get neurotic
Vomit on the toilet seat, Hubba Bubba mixed with bile
And the best word to apply is denial
It’s the latest style, fashion, fad and must have
Keeping up with the joneses, eyeliner like a musk rat
And all the good news, I wouldn’t trust that
You wonder what she did when she cut class, just ask"
That's a long way from rapping about having hoes in different area codes. I appreciated Sankofa's thoughtful take on hip hop and issues around it, although the combination of his lyrics and his commanding tone meant that at times I felt like I was listening to my dad lecture me. Thankfully, Sankofa manages to mix it up enough so that the album never feels too didactic or preachy. And when he is on, he is ON. My favorite track is "The Zoom Zip", a funky, uptempo that Sankofa absolutely kills, dropping lines like:
"Act a jerk, you're getting smacked for sure
It's El Keter in the back with a track, superb
and Sankofa with a rap to learn, clap your hands.
Taking it way back to Dapper Dan.
You might find something worth a listen right here
right now, but if you don't try, you'll never find out.
Lie down, taking a load off. making your woes stop.
Oakland to Beantown-A's to the Bosox
Flow locked? No question I'm testing most thought.
Perfection is destined, I'm ready to go off at any given moment
The frozen are arisen with a dose of focus
Delivering the opus, spitting a cyclone
I shiver the light bones and didn’t invite clones
Lip-zip it and fly home, kid it is sick
Minimum I wrote, envision the bliss
With a telescope attached to the dopest rap
Don’t need a skeleton, cause Vogue is wack
Proceed to scatter facts in the mode of fat
Slow speaking data cats grin and grow, with that"
On "The Zoom Zip", as on most of "The Tortoise Hustle," Sankofa is on fire, attacking the mic with a stellar flow and amazing lyrics. His combination of lyrics, delivery, and beats makes this one of the better rap albums of the year, and certainly a disc worth some attention. I've been listening to this album as Curtis and Kanye have been having their public pissing match, and it made me realize that as long as the underground is producing work as funky, innovative, and intelligent as "The Tortoise Hustle," I have no problem with both Curtis AND Kanye retiring.
Friday, September 21, 2007
SEX STYLE
Kool Keith "Sex Style" Funky Ass Records, 1997
As reviewed by Patrick Taylor (reposted from www.rapreviews.com)
Keith Thornton, aka Kool Keith, likes sex. A lot. On his Dr. Octagon project, he interspersed porn film dialogue and gynecology references into his rap persona, and it was freaky but still funny. On his 1997 album"Sex Style", the gloves came off, and he indulged full-throttle in his obsession.
The album cover has Keith wearing a tank top, Kangol, cowboy boots and no pants. He's posing with a model who was most likely found in the back of SF Weekly. There's a car in the background, a motel sign, and that's about it. It has the same cheap and sleazy feel as low-budget porn, and is a good indication of the music inside. The album starts off with an intro, and then the title track, an ominous-sounding song with an even more ominous chorus:
"Sex Style!
Niggas want it free
Their dogs drink my piss"
And right about there is where listeners start to get a little disturbed. Sure, we like porn, who doesn’t'? But dogs drinking piss? That's a little beyond what we signed up for. And it gets weirder and grosser from there. While your average East Coast rapper would use the menacing beat to drop rhymes about life on the streets, Keith goes in a completely different direction:
"You want freestlye, that's right, the style is free
Niggas suck my dick and they girls drink my pee
I'm on some S&M shit you can't get with
Pull your panties down on stage and watch you sweat quick
Suckers back to pull their style's transsexual
Lesbians dance with the funky heterosexual
You on the mic, and when you rhyme I start to jerk off
Let my dog lick you German Shepard want to bust off
I tell your legs and swat em, MC's having anal sex
Step around like a Tampax, and step up next
I enter New York, no problem with my dick out
California porno star, my ass you can lick out
Saying "What?" with sperm dripping down your partner's butt
I see MC's in my face with their ass up
Let me put my cape on, my rubber and my mask up
Not no horror-core shit, this is porno-core
I'm in the club naked man, I'm the fucking pro
Niggas can't wax no ass, girls should let them know"
If there is one adjective that could describe this album, it's "uncomfortable". It's like hanging out with a friend who starts to share a little too much about his perversions. It's like finding yourself at the Clermont in Atlanta watching over-the-hill strippers pay for their songs AND drinks. "Sex Style" marks the area where a healthy enjoyment of sexuality turns into something much darker and potentially damaging. The rumors around this album are that Keith blew all the money Dreamworks had given him to record a follow up to Dr. Octagon on strippers and porn, and "Sex Style" was the result. I don't know if that is true, but on songs like "Don't Crush It" and "Sly We Fly" Keith sounds as strung out on sex as Rumors-era Fleetwood Mac were on cocaine.
Whatever his mental state, Keith still manages to deliver the crazy/clever lines that he is famous for, like "shooting jism/she ride like a Geo Prism." His freakiness and trips to Belvue aside, Keith is a stellar rapper, and has a unique ability to twist language and spit verses that may not always rhyme, but always work. He has amassed a cult following not just because he says a lot of crazy shit, but because he says it in a way that few MCs can match.
A perfect example is on the dis track "Keep It Real…Represent." On the surface it is your standard homophobic track, in which an MC disses his opponents by accusing them of being gay. However, Keith gives it a freaky twist, by accusing his rivals of not just being gay, but being transsexuals:
"I heard you quit rap, your wife went back to porno flicks
You turned drag queen, a call girl doing tricks
Nighttime prostitute kid, I'ma take your loot
I heard you queer now like Boy George, blowing flutes
With high heels, you stole your mom's birth control pills
You on some new stuff, I heard about that sex change
You got a vagina, your grandmother think it's strange
New eyeliner, you was flirting with a gay designer
Your girl felt mines, and pulled off her Calvin Kleins
I saw Tampax, gonorrhea red stop signs
I looked at her and said, "Mmm.. put your panties back on"
then jerked off to Foxy Brown, when her verse was on
I wanna stand back and bust nuts at your butts
Your girl is cocked up, with lollipops, doggie style
I feel I'm dealin with plastic, watch these fake smiles
Yeah, meet my left and my right"
The chorus is a classic Kool Keith one-liner: "Keep it real.. represent what? My nuts!"
The whole track is so wrong, so gross, and so vivid that you can't help but appreciate it.
"Sex Style" was recorded in San Francisco by Dr. Octagon collaborator Dan the Automator, with Kutmaster Kurt handling all production. Kurt manages some dope beats, sampling Star Trek sound effects on "Sly We Fly", and delivering some bounce on "Make Up Your Mind". For the most part, the songs have the sparse, boom-bap sound that Kurt is famous for. This works for some of the songs, but by the midpoint, the songs start to sound the same, and there just isn't enough variety to carry all sixteen tracks. The monotonous production and creepy sexuality make "Sex Style" difficult to listen to in its entirety. If you do make it through the whole thing, you may find yourself needing a shower.
That doesn’t mean that it isn't a great album. "Sex Style" has it's own, perverted charm. He remains one of the more unique voices in hip hop. One of the things I like about him, and that is really evident in this album, is the fact that he is nobody's fool. He marches to his own drummer, and if you don't like it, he doesn't give a shit. It would have made sense for him to try to appeal to the white hipsters that gobbled up the Dr. Octagon album. Instead, Keith made an album that was too freaky for the hipster audience, too weird for the more mainstream hip hop audience, and too dirty to get any radio play. "Sex Style" is proof that Kool Keith is both an amazing rapper and a superfreak. Now when are he and R. Kelly going to do a collabo?
Friday, September 14, 2007
Mac and AK/Money Mont
These reviews are both on www.rapreviews.com. Both artists are from East Palo Alto, an area I've heard a lot about (in that it is scary and crime-ridden), but never been to.
Mac and A.K. "Legendary" E & K Music
originally posted on www.rapreviews.com
If you want a job done right, do it yourself. Just ask East Palo Alto rappers Mac and A.K. The twin brothers made a splash in 1996 with their debut EP, "Westbound (For Riders Only)." They were briefly signed to Tommy Boy, but soon realized that they were better off on their own, and have released two albums on their own label, E & K Music. "Legendary" is their third release, and not only is it on their label, but label co-owner Mac P handles production on all twenty tracks.
The result is an album that is much more cohesive than your average rap record full of tracks cobbled together from ten different producers. Mac P uses a mixture of keys, drum machines, and live instruments to create solid West Coast funk of the same pedigree as E-40's early work or Dr. Dre's later material. The production sounds slicker and smoother than on Mac and A.K.'s previous albums, and has none of the amateurish quality that often plagues self-released music. Mac and A.K. are experienced players who have been around for a while, and it shows in their confident, laid back beats and their equally confident, laid back rhymes. They spit lines effortlessly, as if they didn't even need to think about it. "Grindin'" exemplifies their style:
[Mac]
"I'm from a small town where they grind it out
If you a hustler ain't hard for you to find it out
On the block all day til the lights is out
Hit the studio and tell you what the life's about
We go hard or go home
Hungry grimey out the trunks
But fuck labels trying to sign us cuz Mac the boss
Known throughout the state
As a grimey go getter out the Golden Gate
AKA the Yay, boy, EPA's finest
We don't need no niggas to cosign us"
[A.K.]
"Since I'm a g I'm gonna lean on back
The whole team on the stacks
With bowling ball green on the 'llacs
I bet you never seen more stacks
Cuz when I be on tracks you can call me the king of rap
These other dudes must be on crack
Saying the Bay is dead
You niggas need to ease on back"
The boys aren't going to win any awards for originality, and they aren't going to steal any sales from Talib Kweli or Common. Mac and A.K.'s idea of enlightenment is drinking Belvedere. They stick to the tried and true hip hop cliches of money, women, partying, and capping haters. Titles like "Git Money", "On My Grind", "Grind Time", "Chedda Chasin", and "We Got Swagger" give you a good idea about where they are coming from. They round out the disc with a few party starters ("Make It Hot", "Do That"), a few warnings to haters ("You Ain't Heard", "You Don't Want It"), and the obligatory regional shout outs ("East Meets West", "California", "Where U From").
Much to their credit, the twins don't jump on the hyphy bandwagon, and avoid the bugged out, high-energy sound that is all over the Bay Area. Instead, they look to the roots of NorCal hip hop, and their sound is firmly rooted in the mobb music tradition. Think Messy Marv rather than Mistah F.A.B. I admire hyphy, and the movement has produced some great singles, but I much prefer the menacing funk of "Legendary" to the MDMA-and-Redbull spazz that epitomizes hyphy.
Despite the shallow subject matter, I couldn't help but enjoy "Legendary". The boys do their thing well, and don't pretend to be something they are not. This may not be the most spiritually fulfilling record ever made, but it's a hell of a good time. There are thousands of artists who do this same kind of DIY street rap, but not that many who do it as well as Mac and A.K.
Money Mont "My Life, My Struggle, My Hustle", E & K Records
Reviewed by Patrick Taylor
The only thing worse than growing up in a poor, crime-ridden neighborhood is growing up in a poor, crime-ridden neighborhood that is in one of the wealthiest areas of the country. Watching the wealthy frolic just down the block while you and your friends and family struggle to survive is its own kind of hell. Money Mont is from East Palo Alto, which had the unenviable distinction of being the murder capital of the U.S. in the early 90s. EPA is a tiny enclave of poverty amidst the excessive wealth of Silicon Valley. 16% of the residents live below the poverty line, the average family income is $45,000, and the average per capita income is $13,000. Compare that to Palo Alto, which is just down the street, home of Stanford University and Hewlitt-Packard, and has a family income of $117,000, a per capita income of $56,000, and about 3% of the population living below the poverty line. That ain't right.
Money Mont, aka Mr. Fetti, has documented the struggles and joys of growing up in the EPA on his debut disc, "My Life, My Struggle, My Hustle". He got his start on Mac and A.K.s debut EP in 1996, and has been featured on songs by local artists for the past ten years. He is clearly a product of the Yay Area: His flow has the same bizarro quality as E-40's, and his production draws from both the g-funk of mobb music and high energy of hyphy.
The production is good throughout the disc. Money Mont uses a slew of local producers like Mac P, Sean T, King Cydal, and Tatum1. Most of the beats are constructed around keys, drums machines, and live instruments, all the better to avoid licensing and legal issues. They manage to mix it up with some cutting and scratching, which adds a welcome old school element. One of my favorite tracks was Blak Muke's "Fresh", which samples a lot of golden age hip hop. "I Been Hustlin" is another great track, which uses the ubiquitous sped up soul sample and strings to create the right tone for Money Mark's introspective lyrics about growing up and getting by.
While I am not a huge fan of the whole hustler motif, Money Mont pulls it off here. Sure, he does a lot of bragging about pimping, making money, having jewelry, and getting with the ladies. However, he manages to instill some honesty and vulnerability into his rhymes, so that you buy into it. He also manages to make hustling seem like an act of rebellion, a big "fuck you" to all of the rich people in the Bay Area who couldn’t give a shit about the people who have been left out of the internet and biotech bonanza. This sets Money Mont apart from a lot of the street rappers who seem to be reading from a script, spewing the same tired cliches because they think that's what hip hop is. He even nails the "sensitive thug" song without coming off as cheesy or hypocritical. On "I'm Blessed" he raps:
"I play the cards I was dealt in the small town cemetery
I was raised in a place where everything wasn't all gravy
Where in the blink of an eye, you can lose your life
When them shots were fired, I should have lost my life
But by the grace of God, I'm here to testify
Yeah, I got hit, but He didn't let me die
Laying on my side, looking at the sky
Didn't say it out loud, but I’m asking why
Was it the dirt I did now back to get me?
They say life is a cycle, everything 360
Don't want no pity, just a chance to live"
That verse might come off to some as a blatant attempt to cash in on 50 Cent's property, but I bought it. He also gives numerous shout-outs to his wife, which is unfortunately pretty rare in hip hop. By presenting a more respectable and sensitive side of himself, Money Mont adds a layer of complexity to his persona that a lot of rappers ignore in their quest to be the hardest, richest, biggest pimp on the block.
I would have enjoyed Money Mont's lyrics even more if I could have understood everything he was saying. Between his garbled, rapid delivery and heavy use of obscure Bay Area slang, Money Mont is not the easiest rapper to comprehend. The slang is fine, and will no doubt enter the popular lexicon (by way of a Southern rapper) in a few years. What Money Mont needs to work on is breath control and delivery. He deserves to be heard, and he should make sure that listeners can understand what he's spitting. "My Life, My Struggle, My Hustle" is a good album by a rapper who deserves some attention.
Mac and A.K. "Legendary" E & K Music
originally posted on www.rapreviews.com
If you want a job done right, do it yourself. Just ask East Palo Alto rappers Mac and A.K. The twin brothers made a splash in 1996 with their debut EP, "Westbound (For Riders Only)." They were briefly signed to Tommy Boy, but soon realized that they were better off on their own, and have released two albums on their own label, E & K Music. "Legendary" is their third release, and not only is it on their label, but label co-owner Mac P handles production on all twenty tracks.
The result is an album that is much more cohesive than your average rap record full of tracks cobbled together from ten different producers. Mac P uses a mixture of keys, drum machines, and live instruments to create solid West Coast funk of the same pedigree as E-40's early work or Dr. Dre's later material. The production sounds slicker and smoother than on Mac and A.K.'s previous albums, and has none of the amateurish quality that often plagues self-released music. Mac and A.K. are experienced players who have been around for a while, and it shows in their confident, laid back beats and their equally confident, laid back rhymes. They spit lines effortlessly, as if they didn't even need to think about it. "Grindin'" exemplifies their style:
[Mac]
"I'm from a small town where they grind it out
If you a hustler ain't hard for you to find it out
On the block all day til the lights is out
Hit the studio and tell you what the life's about
We go hard or go home
Hungry grimey out the trunks
But fuck labels trying to sign us cuz Mac the boss
Known throughout the state
As a grimey go getter out the Golden Gate
AKA the Yay, boy, EPA's finest
We don't need no niggas to cosign us"
[A.K.]
"Since I'm a g I'm gonna lean on back
The whole team on the stacks
With bowling ball green on the 'llacs
I bet you never seen more stacks
Cuz when I be on tracks you can call me the king of rap
These other dudes must be on crack
Saying the Bay is dead
You niggas need to ease on back"
The boys aren't going to win any awards for originality, and they aren't going to steal any sales from Talib Kweli or Common. Mac and A.K.'s idea of enlightenment is drinking Belvedere. They stick to the tried and true hip hop cliches of money, women, partying, and capping haters. Titles like "Git Money", "On My Grind", "Grind Time", "Chedda Chasin", and "We Got Swagger" give you a good idea about where they are coming from. They round out the disc with a few party starters ("Make It Hot", "Do That"), a few warnings to haters ("You Ain't Heard", "You Don't Want It"), and the obligatory regional shout outs ("East Meets West", "California", "Where U From").
Much to their credit, the twins don't jump on the hyphy bandwagon, and avoid the bugged out, high-energy sound that is all over the Bay Area. Instead, they look to the roots of NorCal hip hop, and their sound is firmly rooted in the mobb music tradition. Think Messy Marv rather than Mistah F.A.B. I admire hyphy, and the movement has produced some great singles, but I much prefer the menacing funk of "Legendary" to the MDMA-and-Redbull spazz that epitomizes hyphy.
Despite the shallow subject matter, I couldn't help but enjoy "Legendary". The boys do their thing well, and don't pretend to be something they are not. This may not be the most spiritually fulfilling record ever made, but it's a hell of a good time. There are thousands of artists who do this same kind of DIY street rap, but not that many who do it as well as Mac and A.K.
Money Mont "My Life, My Struggle, My Hustle", E & K Records
Reviewed by Patrick Taylor
The only thing worse than growing up in a poor, crime-ridden neighborhood is growing up in a poor, crime-ridden neighborhood that is in one of the wealthiest areas of the country. Watching the wealthy frolic just down the block while you and your friends and family struggle to survive is its own kind of hell. Money Mont is from East Palo Alto, which had the unenviable distinction of being the murder capital of the U.S. in the early 90s. EPA is a tiny enclave of poverty amidst the excessive wealth of Silicon Valley. 16% of the residents live below the poverty line, the average family income is $45,000, and the average per capita income is $13,000. Compare that to Palo Alto, which is just down the street, home of Stanford University and Hewlitt-Packard, and has a family income of $117,000, a per capita income of $56,000, and about 3% of the population living below the poverty line. That ain't right.
Money Mont, aka Mr. Fetti, has documented the struggles and joys of growing up in the EPA on his debut disc, "My Life, My Struggle, My Hustle". He got his start on Mac and A.K.s debut EP in 1996, and has been featured on songs by local artists for the past ten years. He is clearly a product of the Yay Area: His flow has the same bizarro quality as E-40's, and his production draws from both the g-funk of mobb music and high energy of hyphy.
The production is good throughout the disc. Money Mont uses a slew of local producers like Mac P, Sean T, King Cydal, and Tatum1. Most of the beats are constructed around keys, drums machines, and live instruments, all the better to avoid licensing and legal issues. They manage to mix it up with some cutting and scratching, which adds a welcome old school element. One of my favorite tracks was Blak Muke's "Fresh", which samples a lot of golden age hip hop. "I Been Hustlin" is another great track, which uses the ubiquitous sped up soul sample and strings to create the right tone for Money Mark's introspective lyrics about growing up and getting by.
While I am not a huge fan of the whole hustler motif, Money Mont pulls it off here. Sure, he does a lot of bragging about pimping, making money, having jewelry, and getting with the ladies. However, he manages to instill some honesty and vulnerability into his rhymes, so that you buy into it. He also manages to make hustling seem like an act of rebellion, a big "fuck you" to all of the rich people in the Bay Area who couldn’t give a shit about the people who have been left out of the internet and biotech bonanza. This sets Money Mont apart from a lot of the street rappers who seem to be reading from a script, spewing the same tired cliches because they think that's what hip hop is. He even nails the "sensitive thug" song without coming off as cheesy or hypocritical. On "I'm Blessed" he raps:
"I play the cards I was dealt in the small town cemetery
I was raised in a place where everything wasn't all gravy
Where in the blink of an eye, you can lose your life
When them shots were fired, I should have lost my life
But by the grace of God, I'm here to testify
Yeah, I got hit, but He didn't let me die
Laying on my side, looking at the sky
Didn't say it out loud, but I’m asking why
Was it the dirt I did now back to get me?
They say life is a cycle, everything 360
Don't want no pity, just a chance to live"
That verse might come off to some as a blatant attempt to cash in on 50 Cent's property, but I bought it. He also gives numerous shout-outs to his wife, which is unfortunately pretty rare in hip hop. By presenting a more respectable and sensitive side of himself, Money Mont adds a layer of complexity to his persona that a lot of rappers ignore in their quest to be the hardest, richest, biggest pimp on the block.
I would have enjoyed Money Mont's lyrics even more if I could have understood everything he was saying. Between his garbled, rapid delivery and heavy use of obscure Bay Area slang, Money Mont is not the easiest rapper to comprehend. The slang is fine, and will no doubt enter the popular lexicon (by way of a Southern rapper) in a few years. What Money Mont needs to work on is breath control and delivery. He deserves to be heard, and he should make sure that listeners can understand what he's spitting. "My Life, My Struggle, My Hustle" is a good album by a rapper who deserves some attention.
Friday, September 07, 2007
Public Enemy #1
On September 25, Congress is holding a hearing into media stereotypes and degredation of women titled "From Imus to Industry: The Business of Stereotypes and Degredation". The hearing is being organized by (African-American) representative Bobby Rush of Illinois, who is also head of the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection. The goal is "To engage not just the music industry but the entertainment industry at large to be part of the solution". Witnesses will include bigwigs from Universal, Viacom, and Warner Music, as well as representatives from African American women's groups. the only artist confirmed at this point is Master P, who made a shitload of paper in the 90s doing gangsta rap, but has recently switched to more positive messages. the fact that his sales had flatlined probably had some influence on his decision to switch tactics.
We are spending billions of dollars a week on an unpopular, unsuccessful, and illegal war. The middle class is getting squeezed out of existence, healthcare is out of control, and everyone in the country is up to their eyeballs in debt. We have 2 million people in jail, mostly for non-violent charges, and african americans are overrepresented in prisons as well as homicide statistics, both as victims and perps.
In other words, the US in general and african americans in particular have bigger fish to fry than the copious use of the word bitch and ho in rap lyrics. I am happy that they are taking on the white execs who help decide that offensive lyrics are what the kids want, and thus what they will produce. But really, the whole thing seems like a waste of time and money. Why not work on helping ex-cons find legitimate work, or in reforming our justice system so taht we don't just chuck mass amounts of young men into prison each year. Why don't we focus on the socioeconomic problems behind offensive lyrics? Hell, for that reason, why don't we focus on women in general rather than african american women only?
We are allowing our government to torture people, to deny terror suspects of their civil liberties, to deny the whole public of civil liberties in teh name of protection, and our biggest beef is with rap lyrics? That's fucked up, Mr. Rush.
We are spending billions of dollars a week on an unpopular, unsuccessful, and illegal war. The middle class is getting squeezed out of existence, healthcare is out of control, and everyone in the country is up to their eyeballs in debt. We have 2 million people in jail, mostly for non-violent charges, and african americans are overrepresented in prisons as well as homicide statistics, both as victims and perps.
In other words, the US in general and african americans in particular have bigger fish to fry than the copious use of the word bitch and ho in rap lyrics. I am happy that they are taking on the white execs who help decide that offensive lyrics are what the kids want, and thus what they will produce. But really, the whole thing seems like a waste of time and money. Why not work on helping ex-cons find legitimate work, or in reforming our justice system so taht we don't just chuck mass amounts of young men into prison each year. Why don't we focus on the socioeconomic problems behind offensive lyrics? Hell, for that reason, why don't we focus on women in general rather than african american women only?
We are allowing our government to torture people, to deny terror suspects of their civil liberties, to deny the whole public of civil liberties in teh name of protection, and our biggest beef is with rap lyrics? That's fucked up, Mr. Rush.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Madlib - Beat Konducta in India
Madlib is back on the scene as the Beatkonducta, this time giving us 34 more tracks all inspired by and sampling Indian music. It makes sense that he is reaching out internationally – I’m pretty sure he already owns every jazz and funk record ever made.
I love everything Madlib does because he loves music, and even when it doesn’t quite work his stuff is worth checking out. I like this CD, but not as much as I liked the last Beatkonducta disc. I have the same complaints I had with the last one – the tracks are too short (never more than 2 minutes), you never can get into a groove, and it’s geared more towards trippyness and experimentation than head-bobbing. What this disc is missing is FUNK. By sampling so much Indian stuff, Madlib sacrifices the groove. I liked a lot of the tracks on here, but 34 tracks of Indian music may be a little too much.
But whatever. It’s madlib, it’s out there, it’s worth owning.
pst
Friday, August 17, 2007
Panacea review
Reprinted from www.rapreviews.comPanacea :: The Scenic Route :: Glow-in-the-Dark/Rawkus Records
as reviewed by Patrick Taylor
"The Scenic Route" is D.C. duo Panacea's sophomore effort, coming just a year after "Ink is My Drink". Their relationship with Rawkus is fitting; Like a lot of Rawkus' past and present roster, Panacea are trying to take hip-hop to another level while paying homage to its roots. Panacea is comprised of Raw Poetic on rhymes and K-Murdock on beats. One of Panacea's biggest strengths is that they are a collaborative duo who are responsible for the sound of the entire album, rather than the more typical scenario of a solo rapper pairing with ten different producers. The result is that "The Scenic Route" sounds like an ALBUM rather than just a bunch of singles glommed together.
The intro makes it clear that "The Scenic Route" is not your average hip-hop record. Over a spacey sample, a voice that could do promos for PBS announces: "In life, there exist people whose imaginations are so wildly vivid that they often confuse what is reality and what is, in fact, fantasy. This is the story of one of those people, the story of a man who dreams awake."
Lyrically, Raw Poetic is definitely not lacking in imagination. He has impressive skills, and creates some incredibly complex rhymes, with rhymes within rhymes and metaphors within metaphors. On the title track he spits:
"You want to share my life and times and everyone before me
And still take you on a flow like bubbles that support me
Well help then
They keep me afloat
And I'll be backstroking on the flow of my life because it's dope
And dope is an unnatural high
And I'm a natural guy
Won't cut my hair just so my afro will rise
Love Mother Earth because She's my natural guide"
He shows off some impressive verbal dexterity on "Aim High", where he raps over an intricate jazz beat, which he matches with an equally intricate flow:
"Insanity sometimes be making me howl
On the mountain top like a lion I growl
I look down
Frown
Because of this creation I'm bound
Everything that I denounce I'm taking with me through sound"
I couldn't always follow Raw Poetic's lyrical twists and turns, but even when I got lost, I still enjoyed his flow, breath control, and the way he effortlessly strings words together. His topics are on point as well, taking a decidedly mature look at relationships, love, and creativity.
K-Murdock's beats perfectly compliment Raw Poetic's rhymes. Murdock is obviously inspired by East Coast masters like Pete Rock and DJ Premier, which is evident in the jazz influence and crisp drum sounds on "The Scenic Route”. However, Murdock is no mere imitator: he has a sound all his own, incorporating prog rock elements and other unusual samples to create something that references the past while blazing new territory. His production work is more polished than on "Ink Is My Drink”, and the whole album has a nice, mellow vibe to it. This is definitely a headphone album, because there a ton of nuances that Murcock has inserted into every track, from the jazz guitar in "Walk in the Park” to the various old-school samples.
"The Scenic Route” isn't the most banging hip-hop album of '07, but it is one of the more enjoyable listens I've had this year. Panacea have created a cohesive, mature work that is bursting with creativity. I don't know if "The Scenic Route” is a cure-all for whatever ails you, but it will definitely stay in heavy rotation on my ipod.
Music Vibes: 8 of 10 Lyric Vibes: 8 of 10 TOTAL Vibes: 8 of 10
Originally posted: August 7, 2007
source: www.RapReviews.com
T-Hud Mixtape
Again, a reposting from www.rapreviews.com. You should also check out Matt Jost's review of T-Hud's "Undrafted" on rapreviews. Evidently, it sold 78 copies.
DJ Kay Slay and T-Hud
"First Name 36 Last Name Point 5 Vol. 1"
Nutty Boys Entertainment Group
As reviewed by Patrick Taylor
T-Hud is the stage name of Troy Hudson, whose day job is playing for the Minnesota Timberwolves. Like Shaq and Ron Artest, he is also an aspiring rapper, and the founder/CEO of Nutty Boys Entertainment Group. This disc is a mixtape featuring songs on his upcoming "Undrafted" debut album.
This being a mixtape, none of the production work or songwriting is credited, and I'm not sure how many of the beats are original and whether any were jacked from other artists. Whoever the producers are, they did a damn good job. "Bulletproof" and "Back It Up" are sparse, trunk-rattling crunk ala Lil Jon and David Banner; "How I Like 'Em" is sleazy, strip-club funk. "On That", with its congo drum and synth pulse, has a sinister beauty that is on par with the Neptunes' work on "Hell Hath No Fury." Another standout track is "Whatever", which chops up several second-long soul samples to create a bizarre sound collage. The only real disappointments production-wise are the incredibly cheesy "Go Gettas", which has a sample that could have come from an inspirational after-school special from the 1980s, and the lackluster "White 550s", which is also the first single. The rest of the disc is solid, South-leaning commercial hip-hop.
As a rapper, T-Hud isn't terrible. He isn't great, and I definitely wasn't blown away by his flow, but he holds is own and doesn't embarrass himself or the listener. Lyrically, he is lacking, and that's where it becomes obvious that he is an outsider to the game trying to find a way in. He thankfully avoids making a lot of basketball metaphors, but he ends up being so desperate to prove that he is still street that it becomes ridiculous. This album is one big front, with T-Hud trying his best to prove to the world that underneath his baller persona, he is actually a thug. On "Back It Up" he raps:
"550 through the city
22s in the wintertime
Hundreds in my pocket
Ben Franklin is a friend of mine
Mossberg in the trunk
Lap is a tech-9
Think I'm lying?
Dummies dying
Think I'm lying?
Mommies crying
I'm rich, bitch, the hummer's mine
Sitting on 29s
Candy paint dripping
Inside peanut butter
If you think I'm slipping
Inside still gutter
The league is new, dude
Don't let it fool you
I'm from the hood motherfucker
I got twos too"
T-Hud is a ball player. He makes millions of dollars a year. So why is he fronting like he's a 19-year-old gangsta fresh out of the hood? Does he really ride around with a shotgun in hi s trunk looking to shoot anyone who crosses him? I understand the necessity in hip-hop for street cred, but that doesn't mean bragging about stuff you clearly are not involved in, and declaring "I'll gun ya and then your body will be shaking from the trauma." T-Hud is an NBA player, not a hustler, and he should stop acting like he's a thug.
Given how uptight the NBA is about how its players present themselves, I was surprised to hear T-Hud dropping lines like:
"Purple, chronic, sticky, dro
That's all a playa blow, that's all a playa blow
Rolling in my chevy through the hood I'm feeling (bulletproof)
I wish a nigga would can't you see I'm feeling (bulletproof)
Smoking on that good sipping yak and feeling (bulletproof)"
It makes for a catchy song, but he is just begging to get pulled over or have a surprise drug test. On other tracks he brags about flipping keys, cooking crack, and being a gangsta. He is obviously taking inspiration from reformed drug dealers like Biggie and Jay-Z, whom he compares himself to. What T-Hud misses, along with a lot of rappers today, is that what makes artists like Biggie, T.I., and the Clipse so good isn't that they rap about selling crack and being involved in illegal business. Those guys have charisma, flow, and talent, and are able to flip language around to make even the most mundane recounting of a drug deal seem like something clever and innovative. It's not their subject matter, it's the way they rap about their subject matter. In a recent interview, Talib Kweli said that he blamed the recent drop in quality hip-hop releases on the hustler mentality, where all these young rappers think that you just need to spit a few lines about cooking crack and capping fools and you have an album, losing the lyricism and artistry of hip-hop. T-Hud falls into this trap, and his record suffers because of it.
T-Hud gets some assistance from Freeway, David Banner, and the Three 6 Mafia, who are all featured on different tracks. They drop a few decent bars which add some credibility to the project, and their expert intervention is welcome. I wish T-Hud had made a record solely devoted to flossing and partying, something along the lines of Paul Wall's "The People's Champ." As it is, this mixtape makes for decent background music, so long as you don't listen to the words.
Music Vibes: 7.5 out of 10 Lyric Vibes: 5 out of 10 Total Vibes: 6.5 out of 10
DJ Kay Slay and T-Hud
"First Name 36 Last Name Point 5 Vol. 1"
Nutty Boys Entertainment Group
As reviewed by Patrick Taylor
T-Hud is the stage name of Troy Hudson, whose day job is playing for the Minnesota Timberwolves. Like Shaq and Ron Artest, he is also an aspiring rapper, and the founder/CEO of Nutty Boys Entertainment Group. This disc is a mixtape featuring songs on his upcoming "Undrafted" debut album.
This being a mixtape, none of the production work or songwriting is credited, and I'm not sure how many of the beats are original and whether any were jacked from other artists. Whoever the producers are, they did a damn good job. "Bulletproof" and "Back It Up" are sparse, trunk-rattling crunk ala Lil Jon and David Banner; "How I Like 'Em" is sleazy, strip-club funk. "On That", with its congo drum and synth pulse, has a sinister beauty that is on par with the Neptunes' work on "Hell Hath No Fury." Another standout track is "Whatever", which chops up several second-long soul samples to create a bizarre sound collage. The only real disappointments production-wise are the incredibly cheesy "Go Gettas", which has a sample that could have come from an inspirational after-school special from the 1980s, and the lackluster "White 550s", which is also the first single. The rest of the disc is solid, South-leaning commercial hip-hop.
As a rapper, T-Hud isn't terrible. He isn't great, and I definitely wasn't blown away by his flow, but he holds is own and doesn't embarrass himself or the listener. Lyrically, he is lacking, and that's where it becomes obvious that he is an outsider to the game trying to find a way in. He thankfully avoids making a lot of basketball metaphors, but he ends up being so desperate to prove that he is still street that it becomes ridiculous. This album is one big front, with T-Hud trying his best to prove to the world that underneath his baller persona, he is actually a thug. On "Back It Up" he raps:
"550 through the city
22s in the wintertime
Hundreds in my pocket
Ben Franklin is a friend of mine
Mossberg in the trunk
Lap is a tech-9
Think I'm lying?
Dummies dying
Think I'm lying?
Mommies crying
I'm rich, bitch, the hummer's mine
Sitting on 29s
Candy paint dripping
Inside peanut butter
If you think I'm slipping
Inside still gutter
The league is new, dude
Don't let it fool you
I'm from the hood motherfucker
I got twos too"
T-Hud is a ball player. He makes millions of dollars a year. So why is he fronting like he's a 19-year-old gangsta fresh out of the hood? Does he really ride around with a shotgun in hi s trunk looking to shoot anyone who crosses him? I understand the necessity in hip-hop for street cred, but that doesn't mean bragging about stuff you clearly are not involved in, and declaring "I'll gun ya and then your body will be shaking from the trauma." T-Hud is an NBA player, not a hustler, and he should stop acting like he's a thug.
Given how uptight the NBA is about how its players present themselves, I was surprised to hear T-Hud dropping lines like:
"Purple, chronic, sticky, dro
That's all a playa blow, that's all a playa blow
Rolling in my chevy through the hood I'm feeling (bulletproof)
I wish a nigga would can't you see I'm feeling (bulletproof)
Smoking on that good sipping yak and feeling (bulletproof)"
It makes for a catchy song, but he is just begging to get pulled over or have a surprise drug test. On other tracks he brags about flipping keys, cooking crack, and being a gangsta. He is obviously taking inspiration from reformed drug dealers like Biggie and Jay-Z, whom he compares himself to. What T-Hud misses, along with a lot of rappers today, is that what makes artists like Biggie, T.I., and the Clipse so good isn't that they rap about selling crack and being involved in illegal business. Those guys have charisma, flow, and talent, and are able to flip language around to make even the most mundane recounting of a drug deal seem like something clever and innovative. It's not their subject matter, it's the way they rap about their subject matter. In a recent interview, Talib Kweli said that he blamed the recent drop in quality hip-hop releases on the hustler mentality, where all these young rappers think that you just need to spit a few lines about cooking crack and capping fools and you have an album, losing the lyricism and artistry of hip-hop. T-Hud falls into this trap, and his record suffers because of it.
T-Hud gets some assistance from Freeway, David Banner, and the Three 6 Mafia, who are all featured on different tracks. They drop a few decent bars which add some credibility to the project, and their expert intervention is welcome. I wish T-Hud had made a record solely devoted to flossing and partying, something along the lines of Paul Wall's "The People's Champ." As it is, this mixtape makes for decent background music, so long as you don't listen to the words.
Music Vibes: 7.5 out of 10 Lyric Vibes: 5 out of 10 Total Vibes: 6.5 out of 10
Citizens of Sleep repost from RapReviews.com
Originally posted on RapReviews.com. I still listen to this disc!
Citizens of Sleep: "Sometimes I Just Can't Get Outraged Over Copyright Law" www.barakanoel.com
Citizens of Sleep are an indie hip-hop act out of Oberlin, Ohio. They are comprised of emcees Sacrifice, !nk, Baraka Noel, and UR$, with production work by The Economy of China, Sean Blaze, G the Future and UR$. Baraka and Sacrifice are also founders of Freestyle Theater, a hip-hop theater company. I won’t lie – I was really scared when I read the words “hip-hop theater”, and I was anticipating the worst. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised to find 13 tracks of thoughtful, progressive hip-hop that would not be out of place on Anticon or Def Jux.
The beats are strong throughout the disc. Opener “Exodus” has a gentle piano loop and a with a haunting female voice. "Lullaby" has pounding, off-kilter piano with maniacal laughter that adds tension as Baraka drops lyrics like:
"I know bombs are dropping, but damn
Abstract concepts are not what I want to talk about
Let's slow down
I know now my privilege is such
I ain't really had to deal with too much”
Other highlights include a beat built around an old soul riff on “Neverlove”, the mellow and introspective "Apollo and Tappan", and "Battle Cry for the End of the World" which has an intensity that reminds me of Public Enemy.
This disc also features some of the better lyrics I’ve heard in a while, with all the emcees showcasing some serious verbal calisthenics. They bring a much-needed infusion of intelligent wordplay to hip-hop, and move miles beyond the standard “jewels, guns and hos” subject matter that a lot of rappers are mired in. They tackle the Iraq war, the Virgina Tech shootings, depression, relationships, absent fathers, white privilege, and of course, the state of hip-hop. The Citizens avoid being preachy or sounding too full of their own brilliance, which is a problem some conscious rappers have. Instead, they spit lines like:
"Had to call my mother just to wonder what to call my father
When I was seven years old someone told me
What heaven is and how life packages end in severance
And how benevolence comes to those who bend to it
Later found out that's bullshit
Just medicine for how the world gets
Linked to fears of the afterlife"
Like the best hip-hop songs, the lyrics stick with you, and each listen provides an opportunity to unravel their language and discover something new. The Citizens put the poetry back in hip-hop. They also have a sense of humor, and sex, weed and food all get the proper respect here. One of my favorite tracks was “Breakfast”, which is basically a seven-minute freestyle with all of the members getting a chance goof off. Another great track is "By Your Side" which appears twice on the album, with different lyrics. It features a lonely piano chord with a ticking beat, and an old-timey singer on the hook. On the remix, Sacrifice raps:
"Excessive regret used to cheat
Disrespected my ex
Expect contempt
It's complex to express
I resent that I can't ever repent
Condemned to get remembered for events I'd rather forget
Have to admit I want a child but can't begin to commit
I don't want to keep with monogamy or misogyny
Here's my apology
I fall between
Not fond of either"
This disc isn’t without its drawbacks. On “City of Sleep”, the levels on the vocals are messed up, they bungle some of their verses, and it sounds amateurish. The title track is a little too precious for its own good, and sees the crew falling into self-righteous territory. Also, while I admire the lack of macho posturing, sometimes they get a little too “emo” for their own good. They occasionally cross that fine line between being sensitive and being whiney, harping a little too much on their insecurities and personal issues.
For the most part, however, this is a great disc. It's available free on www.barakanoel.com, so there is no reason not to cop it. Citizens of Sleep is a promising group, and I'm looking forward to checking out their future releases.
Music Vibes: 8.0 out of 10 Lyric Vibes: 8.0 out of 10 Total Vibes: 8.0 out of 10
Citizens of Sleep: "Sometimes I Just Can't Get Outraged Over Copyright Law" www.barakanoel.com
Citizens of Sleep are an indie hip-hop act out of Oberlin, Ohio. They are comprised of emcees Sacrifice, !nk, Baraka Noel, and UR$, with production work by The Economy of China, Sean Blaze, G the Future and UR$. Baraka and Sacrifice are also founders of Freestyle Theater, a hip-hop theater company. I won’t lie – I was really scared when I read the words “hip-hop theater”, and I was anticipating the worst. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised to find 13 tracks of thoughtful, progressive hip-hop that would not be out of place on Anticon or Def Jux.
The beats are strong throughout the disc. Opener “Exodus” has a gentle piano loop and a with a haunting female voice. "Lullaby" has pounding, off-kilter piano with maniacal laughter that adds tension as Baraka drops lyrics like:
"I know bombs are dropping, but damn
Abstract concepts are not what I want to talk about
Let's slow down
I know now my privilege is such
I ain't really had to deal with too much”
Other highlights include a beat built around an old soul riff on “Neverlove”, the mellow and introspective "Apollo and Tappan", and "Battle Cry for the End of the World" which has an intensity that reminds me of Public Enemy.
This disc also features some of the better lyrics I’ve heard in a while, with all the emcees showcasing some serious verbal calisthenics. They bring a much-needed infusion of intelligent wordplay to hip-hop, and move miles beyond the standard “jewels, guns and hos” subject matter that a lot of rappers are mired in. They tackle the Iraq war, the Virgina Tech shootings, depression, relationships, absent fathers, white privilege, and of course, the state of hip-hop. The Citizens avoid being preachy or sounding too full of their own brilliance, which is a problem some conscious rappers have. Instead, they spit lines like:
"Had to call my mother just to wonder what to call my father
When I was seven years old someone told me
What heaven is and how life packages end in severance
And how benevolence comes to those who bend to it
Later found out that's bullshit
Just medicine for how the world gets
Linked to fears of the afterlife"
Like the best hip-hop songs, the lyrics stick with you, and each listen provides an opportunity to unravel their language and discover something new. The Citizens put the poetry back in hip-hop. They also have a sense of humor, and sex, weed and food all get the proper respect here. One of my favorite tracks was “Breakfast”, which is basically a seven-minute freestyle with all of the members getting a chance goof off. Another great track is "By Your Side" which appears twice on the album, with different lyrics. It features a lonely piano chord with a ticking beat, and an old-timey singer on the hook. On the remix, Sacrifice raps:
"Excessive regret used to cheat
Disrespected my ex
Expect contempt
It's complex to express
I resent that I can't ever repent
Condemned to get remembered for events I'd rather forget
Have to admit I want a child but can't begin to commit
I don't want to keep with monogamy or misogyny
Here's my apology
I fall between
Not fond of either"
This disc isn’t without its drawbacks. On “City of Sleep”, the levels on the vocals are messed up, they bungle some of their verses, and it sounds amateurish. The title track is a little too precious for its own good, and sees the crew falling into self-righteous territory. Also, while I admire the lack of macho posturing, sometimes they get a little too “emo” for their own good. They occasionally cross that fine line between being sensitive and being whiney, harping a little too much on their insecurities and personal issues.
For the most part, however, this is a great disc. It's available free on www.barakanoel.com, so there is no reason not to cop it. Citizens of Sleep is a promising group, and I'm looking forward to checking out their future releases.
Music Vibes: 8.0 out of 10 Lyric Vibes: 8.0 out of 10 Total Vibes: 8.0 out of 10
Akir -The Legacy repost from RapReviews.com
This was originally a featured review on RapReviews.com back in July.
Akir "Legacy" Babygrande, www.babygrande.com
As reviewed by Patrick Taylor
Akir is from New York, and it shows. He has a flow and voice similar to Nas. His beats share some of the somber sparseness of classic Mobb Deep, and the jazz influence of DJ Premier. He shares the politicized anger of KRS-One and Public Enemy, and the thoughtful lyrics of Talib Kweli. He even introduces his debut, "Legacy", with Abiodun Oyewole of the Last Poets. Over a playful string-infused beat, Oyewole rails about the loss of the revolutionary ideals of the Sixties:
"We got high on Blackness
Held our black fists up
Told the devil to suck
And made a commitment to disrupt the world
Kill a cop a day
Give white girls no play
Make America pay for all her wicked ways
The shit was on!
Then it was gone
Just like an episode on TV
It got cancelled, and there was nothing to see
Panthers were turned into little pussycats
Revolution was commercialized
And had nothing to do with Black
[…]
But we never stopped making babies
They came out breathing the vapors of our aborted revolution."
That intro makes it clear where Akir is coming from. He is a product of 1960s idealism, with a healthy dose of Y2K realism. He is conscious without being preachy, street without glamorizing nihilism and materialism, and progressive without being boring. He doesn't bother with talking about his whip or his jewels, and he doesn't waste too much breath criticizing those who do. Instead he presents an alternative to hip-hop that crassly celebrates the hustle. His rhymes are full of people who dream of being rich and partying, but struggle to make ends meet, work shit jobs to pay the bills, and whose only options seem to be prison or wage slavery. On "Kunta Kinte", he rhymes:
"Tryna be a player but nobody coaches
Consuming with your credit cards swarm you like locusts
Though they show interest you'll never know to invest
Cause they know interest will lock you deep in debt
Writing checks for your rent"
As much as I don't want to reduce Akir to merely the second coming of Nas, I can't help but hear a little "Illmatic" in Akir's vivid, harsh descriptions of life. He paints a clear image of being a hungry young rapper on "These R the Blues":
"Wake up in the morning
Got the yearning for herb
Pause for a minute
Pour my beer on the curb
Yawn then I spit it
A bottomless pit
No food in my stomach
Two days I ain't shit"
Even his romantic "Tropical Fantasy" is brought down to earth. While Akir rhymes about going to "Costa Rica Antigua or Dominica/Linens with a mean cuff shirt/Matching the sneakers/Ganja I reek of," Jean Grae brings it back to earth, reminding him about "Dirty buildings and steel doors/The damn trap/Can't blast out/Maxed out." Then she tells him:
"See we already blessed
Forgetting the stress
They're pennies, yes
But, see, many are without anything or less."
Like executive producer Immortal Technique, Akir has a political bent that is all too rare in hip-hop these days. He offers some astute insight into how African Americans are often denied voting rights on "Politricks" and attacks the incompetent, racist response to Hurricane Katrina on "The Louisiana Purchase". Even beyond his content, he is an amazing lyricist: He raps on 19 tracks on this disc, and I didn't hear one lame rhyme.
The music is equally solid. His One Enterprise production company handles the majority of the beats, with Akir sharing most of the credit, and handling the entire production on a few tracks. The beats range from acoustic guitar and strings on "Tropical Fantasy" to a more spare and sinister piano/drum combo on"Grind" and "These R the Blues." "Homeward Bound" has a bossanova feel to it, and "Politriks" sounds as if it samples the soundtrack to a 60s thriller. The whole disc has a slightly understated quality that I associate with a lot of classic New York hip hop. Akir isn’t trying to hit you over the head with hooks or glossy production. Instead, he has crafted an album that plays on the strengths of its lyrics, and demands and deserves repeated listens.
Babygrande is reissuing this album, which originally came out in 2005. I hope that means that Akir is prepping some new material, and we won’t have to wait long to hear more from this talented rapper. With "Legacy" Akir has proven that he does indeed Always Keep It Real, that New York is still relevant, and that hip hop ain't dead.
Music Vibes: 8 out of 10 Lyric Vibes: 9 out of 10 Total Vibes 8.5 out of 10
99 Posse part 2
I'm going to start posting the my www.rapreviews.com reviews on this blog. This was originally posted on Tuesday the 14th of August on RapReviews.
99 Posse "La Vida Que Vendra"
Released in 2001
As reviewed by Patrick Taylor
We always talk about hip hop in terms of East Coast, West Coast, or the South. It might make more sense for us to talk about it in terms of Eastern Europe, Western Africa, and South America, because hip hop is a global, not American, phenomenon. You are just as likely to hear DMX or Jay-Z blaring out of car stereos in Bratislava or Rio as you are to hear it in the Bronx. In the last twenty years, thousands of regional scenes have popped up across the globe full of hip hop heads reinterpreting the genre in their own tongue and for their own circumstances.
99 Posse (pronounced "nove-nove") formed around 1991at a centro sociale in Naples, Italy called Officina 99. Centro sociali, or social centers, are kind of like community art and activity spaces, with a definite socialist bent. 99 Posse formed in order to have a vehicle for their political and social views. It's fitting that they were from Naples. Like a lot of cities where American hip hop has flourished, Naples suffers from underemployment, poverty, crime, and corruption. There is also a lot of prejudice directed at Neapolitans, and the entire Italian South, by Northern Italians. In short, Naples is about as ghetto as Italy can get, and the same pressures and struggles that have inspired rappers in the US inspired the 99 Posse.
From the moment they were formed, the group was politically motivated. Like most of the Italian Left, 99 Posse were anti-imperialism, pro-minority, pro-immigrant, and sympathetic to communism. They were for marijuana and the working man, and against the government, the mob, and bosses. The anti-Mafia vibe in their music is in stark contrast to American hip hop, where the gangsta is often looked up to as an entrepreneur working outside the confines of the system.
99 Posse were also different from their American peers in that they were a musical group, not just a posse of rappers. The group included rapper Zulù, singer/rapper Meg Kaya Pezz8 on beats, JRM on bass, and Sacha Ricci on keys. They mixed rock, pop, techno, trip-hop, reggae, and hip hop into a Technicolor concoction that is not unlike the Black Eyed Peas, albeit less commercial.
“La Vida Que Vendra” (Spanish for "The Life That Will Come"), their sixth and final studio album, came out in 2001. It was an exciting time for the Left, who were still feeling the adrenaline from the 1999 WTO riots in Seattle. The anti-globalization movement was in full swing, and there was an optimism that young radicals across the planet could unite and fight corporate dominance and put political and economic power back in the hands of the People. “La Vida Que Vendra” is brimming with the hopefulness and righteous anger of the time.
The album starts with “Commincia Addesso” (“It Begins Now”), a call to arms which features Meg and Zulu rallying against privatization and wage slavery. The song's political lyrics and driving beat set the stage for the rest of the album. It’s followed by “ L’Anguilla” (“The Eel”) in which Zulu uses the eel as a metaphor for himself, slipping and slithering under the radar of the mainstream to subvert and sabotage. Over a bouncing beat laced with surf guitars, he lets loose one of my favorite hip hop disses ever –“va fa mmocc’a chi’v’e’ mmuorto”, a Neapolitan dis that means “go give head to your dead relatives.” I love their use of Neopolitan dialect. It adds a regional flavor that serves the same role as American hip hop slang, while making the finished product wholly Italian.
Another highlight is the rocking, bass-heavy “Esplosione Imminente” ("Imminent Explosion"), which is about all the whole breed of disaffected underclass ready to stand up against the system and fight the powers that be. Given the violence that the world has fallen into since this album dropped, the song seems eerily prescient. The most pop song on the disc is “Commutwist”, which laments how socialism has fallen out of favor in recent years, claiming that it is so out of mode to be communist that they dance the twist. For all its bouncy goofiness, it is rooted in solid convictions and lines like:
“E poi c’é la flessibilitÃ
a nuova moda a tutti ormai nota
che ci divide tutti a metÃ
chi more ’e famme e chi va in Europa”
(and now there is the flexibility, a new way that has already been noted, that divides the entire world in half – those who die of hunger, and those who go to Europe.)
I don’t know if the song was a hit in Italy, but it certainly had the possibility to be one. It was an ingenious way of spreading a serious message. Jay-Z may sport a Che shirt, but 99 lived it. This is further exemplified by "Povera Vita Mia" ("My Poor Life"), a dirge-like, mournful track that features a rapid-fire rant by Zulu about the struggles of the working class. He perfectly captures the feelings of frustration, anger, and hopelessness that are all-too common amongst the working poor.
One of the great things about 99 posse is that they are inspired by American hip hop but create their own take on it. They don’t merely imitate 50 cent or Nas or Puffy. The world does not need a bunch of global rappers sporting bling and trying to act like they are from the South Bronx or Caliope projects. We don't need half-assed, foreign-language versions of American rappers. International hip hop works best when artists are able to flip the script and put their own stamp on the art form, creating a unique voice that adds to the culture as a whole.
"La Vida Que Vendra" isn't 100% solid. Techno tracks like "Sub" or "Yankee Go Home" are pretty forgettable, and "Some Say This Some Say That" is an irritating pop-dancehall track. They also mellow it out on tracks like "A Una Donna" and "Sfumature", both of which highlight Meg's singing abilities. They are decent songs, but they also drag the album down a bit. Still, when it’s good, it’s great, and the combination of banging beats and revolutionary rhetoric is irresistible.
I'm not sure that someone without an appreciation for Italian music would be that excited by this disc. It can't begin to compare to Public Enemy or even Rage Against the Machine as far as political rap. The broad musical influences and styles on the disc might turn off some hip hop heads who don't like any techno or trip-hop in their music. However, "La Vida Que Vendra" is an excellent document of the impact hip hop has had on the world, and how other cultures have adapted hip hop into their own. It is also a eulogy of sorts of the optimistic radical anti-globalization movement that has been irreparably changed and transformed in the wake of 9/11, the riots in Genova, and the war in Iraq. Listening to this disc, I can't help but think of the Wu's question - "Can it be that it was all so simple then?"
Music Vibes: 7 of 10 Lyric Vibes: 9 of 10 Total Vibes: 8 of 10
99 Posse "La Vida Que Vendra"
Released in 2001
As reviewed by Patrick Taylor
We always talk about hip hop in terms of East Coast, West Coast, or the South. It might make more sense for us to talk about it in terms of Eastern Europe, Western Africa, and South America, because hip hop is a global, not American, phenomenon. You are just as likely to hear DMX or Jay-Z blaring out of car stereos in Bratislava or Rio as you are to hear it in the Bronx. In the last twenty years, thousands of regional scenes have popped up across the globe full of hip hop heads reinterpreting the genre in their own tongue and for their own circumstances.
99 Posse (pronounced "nove-nove") formed around 1991at a centro sociale in Naples, Italy called Officina 99. Centro sociali, or social centers, are kind of like community art and activity spaces, with a definite socialist bent. 99 Posse formed in order to have a vehicle for their political and social views. It's fitting that they were from Naples. Like a lot of cities where American hip hop has flourished, Naples suffers from underemployment, poverty, crime, and corruption. There is also a lot of prejudice directed at Neapolitans, and the entire Italian South, by Northern Italians. In short, Naples is about as ghetto as Italy can get, and the same pressures and struggles that have inspired rappers in the US inspired the 99 Posse.
From the moment they were formed, the group was politically motivated. Like most of the Italian Left, 99 Posse were anti-imperialism, pro-minority, pro-immigrant, and sympathetic to communism. They were for marijuana and the working man, and against the government, the mob, and bosses. The anti-Mafia vibe in their music is in stark contrast to American hip hop, where the gangsta is often looked up to as an entrepreneur working outside the confines of the system.
99 Posse were also different from their American peers in that they were a musical group, not just a posse of rappers. The group included rapper Zulù, singer/rapper Meg Kaya Pezz8 on beats, JRM on bass, and Sacha Ricci on keys. They mixed rock, pop, techno, trip-hop, reggae, and hip hop into a Technicolor concoction that is not unlike the Black Eyed Peas, albeit less commercial.
“La Vida Que Vendra” (Spanish for "The Life That Will Come"), their sixth and final studio album, came out in 2001. It was an exciting time for the Left, who were still feeling the adrenaline from the 1999 WTO riots in Seattle. The anti-globalization movement was in full swing, and there was an optimism that young radicals across the planet could unite and fight corporate dominance and put political and economic power back in the hands of the People. “La Vida Que Vendra” is brimming with the hopefulness and righteous anger of the time.
The album starts with “Commincia Addesso” (“It Begins Now”), a call to arms which features Meg and Zulu rallying against privatization and wage slavery. The song's political lyrics and driving beat set the stage for the rest of the album. It’s followed by “ L’Anguilla” (“The Eel”) in which Zulu uses the eel as a metaphor for himself, slipping and slithering under the radar of the mainstream to subvert and sabotage. Over a bouncing beat laced with surf guitars, he lets loose one of my favorite hip hop disses ever –“va fa mmocc’a chi’v’e’ mmuorto”, a Neapolitan dis that means “go give head to your dead relatives.” I love their use of Neopolitan dialect. It adds a regional flavor that serves the same role as American hip hop slang, while making the finished product wholly Italian.
Another highlight is the rocking, bass-heavy “Esplosione Imminente” ("Imminent Explosion"), which is about all the whole breed of disaffected underclass ready to stand up against the system and fight the powers that be. Given the violence that the world has fallen into since this album dropped, the song seems eerily prescient. The most pop song on the disc is “Commutwist”, which laments how socialism has fallen out of favor in recent years, claiming that it is so out of mode to be communist that they dance the twist. For all its bouncy goofiness, it is rooted in solid convictions and lines like:
“E poi c’é la flessibilitÃ
a nuova moda a tutti ormai nota
che ci divide tutti a metÃ
chi more ’e famme e chi va in Europa”
(and now there is the flexibility, a new way that has already been noted, that divides the entire world in half – those who die of hunger, and those who go to Europe.)
I don’t know if the song was a hit in Italy, but it certainly had the possibility to be one. It was an ingenious way of spreading a serious message. Jay-Z may sport a Che shirt, but 99 lived it. This is further exemplified by "Povera Vita Mia" ("My Poor Life"), a dirge-like, mournful track that features a rapid-fire rant by Zulu about the struggles of the working class. He perfectly captures the feelings of frustration, anger, and hopelessness that are all-too common amongst the working poor.
One of the great things about 99 posse is that they are inspired by American hip hop but create their own take on it. They don’t merely imitate 50 cent or Nas or Puffy. The world does not need a bunch of global rappers sporting bling and trying to act like they are from the South Bronx or Caliope projects. We don't need half-assed, foreign-language versions of American rappers. International hip hop works best when artists are able to flip the script and put their own stamp on the art form, creating a unique voice that adds to the culture as a whole.
"La Vida Que Vendra" isn't 100% solid. Techno tracks like "Sub" or "Yankee Go Home" are pretty forgettable, and "Some Say This Some Say That" is an irritating pop-dancehall track. They also mellow it out on tracks like "A Una Donna" and "Sfumature", both of which highlight Meg's singing abilities. They are decent songs, but they also drag the album down a bit. Still, when it’s good, it’s great, and the combination of banging beats and revolutionary rhetoric is irresistible.
I'm not sure that someone without an appreciation for Italian music would be that excited by this disc. It can't begin to compare to Public Enemy or even Rage Against the Machine as far as political rap. The broad musical influences and styles on the disc might turn off some hip hop heads who don't like any techno or trip-hop in their music. However, "La Vida Que Vendra" is an excellent document of the impact hip hop has had on the world, and how other cultures have adapted hip hop into their own. It is also a eulogy of sorts of the optimistic radical anti-globalization movement that has been irreparably changed and transformed in the wake of 9/11, the riots in Genova, and the war in Iraq. Listening to this disc, I can't help but think of the Wu's question - "Can it be that it was all so simple then?"
Music Vibes: 7 of 10 Lyric Vibes: 9 of 10 Total Vibes: 8 of 10
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Lil’ Wayne The Leak (AKA “Carter III”)
Lil’ Wayne, the self-proclaimed “Best Rapper Alive” dealt with a recent leak of his upcoming “Carter III” album by releasing a mixtape of a bunch of the leaked tracks. I picked it up last weekend, and while I haven’t had time to listen to it very much, I gottta say it’s pretty decent. There’s the Rockwilder-produced “Zoo” with it’s sparse beat, and the whole thing has Weezy’s trademark laid-back flow and verbal wordplay. My favorite track, and my favorite song right now, is “I Feel Like Dying”, a bugged out piece of psychedelica over a sample of Kama’s “Once”. The lyrics go a little sumpin’ like this:
“I can play basketball with the moon
I got the whole world at my feet
Playin’ touch football on Marijuana Street
Or in a marijuana field, you are so beneath my cleats
Get high, so high that I feel like lying
Down in a cigar, roll me up & smoke me cuz
(I feel like dying)
Swimming laps around a bottle of Louie The 13th
Jumping off of a mountain into a sea of Codine
I’m at the top of the top but still I climb
And if I shall ever fall the ground will then turn to wine
Pop, Pop, I feel like flying, then I feel like frying, then
(I feel like dying)
I can mingle with the stars & throw a party on Mars
I am a prisoner locked up behind Xanax bars
I have just boarded a plane without a pilot
And violets are blue, roses are red
Daisies are yellow, the flowers are dead
Wish I can give you this feeling
I feel like buying
And if my dealer don’t have no more, then
(I feel like dying)”
It reminds me of the Beatles’ druggie stuff. I don’t know if weezy is really the best rapper alive, but he isn’t half bad.
pst
Friday, August 10, 2007
September 11 – A Day That Will Live In Infamy
No, not because of the anniversary of the attacks on that date six years ago, nor the how our country and world has devolved since then, but because on 9/11/07, Kanye West AND 50 Cent will release their latest masterpieces on the public. I will admit to owning both artists’ debut album, and I will also admit to liking several tracks on both albums. However, I am so fucking sick of these two egomaniacal bastards that the idea of having to deal with both of their PR blitzes at once is nauseating.
50 has already said he’d quit making albums if Kanye outsold him. Please?
For Christmas I hope that 50 gets a therapist, and learns how to sell records without having beef with anyone who might possibly be able to get him some press time, and for Kanye, I wish humility. Just a little humility. Honestly, he isn’t a great rapper, and his production trick of speeding up soul samples is played the fuck out.
Whatever – I’ll be too busy listening to the latest Madlib record to care. I never heard a SINGLE track off of either the Massacre or Late Registration, so I’m hoping to continue that trend with the Curtis and Graduation Day.
50 has already said he’d quit making albums if Kanye outsold him. Please?
For Christmas I hope that 50 gets a therapist, and learns how to sell records without having beef with anyone who might possibly be able to get him some press time, and for Kanye, I wish humility. Just a little humility. Honestly, he isn’t a great rapper, and his production trick of speeding up soul samples is played the fuck out.
Whatever – I’ll be too busy listening to the latest Madlib record to care. I never heard a SINGLE track off of either the Massacre or Late Registration, so I’m hoping to continue that trend with the Curtis and Graduation Day.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
The best album of the year (so far), and it’s free!
I’ve been getting a ton of stuff to review, and I’ve bought a handful of new CD’s, but the disc I keep listening to over and over again I downloaded for free. It’s Wale’s (prounounced Wa-LAY) “100 Miles and Running” mixtape. Download it off of his myspace page here:
http://www.myspace.com/wale202
Wale has some wicked lyrics, and is a little like a less Muslim Lupe Fiasco. The thing I love about this mixtape is it is able to borrow beats and use breaks that you could never get the rights to – like “Work” which features the classic “Apache” break mixed with the Beatles’ “Hey Mr. Bulldog”. He also raps over tracks by Justice, Lily Allen, Amy Winehouse, James Brown, and Gorillaz. The whole thing has a brilliant old school flavor to it, with Wale dropping some great lines. Good stuff.
-pst
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Operation: Doomsday
I just bought “Operation: Doomsday”, the first album by MF DOOM. The disc has been out of print for a while, owning to the fact that it infringes on the copyright of Marvel Comics Dr. Doom character, not to mention the samples from the Fantastic Four cartoon from the sixties, and a song that samples “Scooby Doo”. This album goes for a million bucks on ebay, but it is on itunes (with a modified cover) for a mere 12 bucks. Bargain!
You either love DOOM or you don’t. He raps in non-sequitors, and a lot of time just seems to put random shit together. A lot of his work seems to have been done in his basement, and so there is both an intimacy and an anything-goes” dynamic to it. The flipside is that there is also a lack of editing, so it’s not all solid gold.
Most of the beats on this album appear on his special herbs box set, which I own. One exception is “Hey!” which samples the theme to the New Scooby Doo Movies. I am a huge fan of those old Scooby Doo shows, so I was really thrilled to hear a beat built around the organ, punctuated with horns and the gang saying “HEY!”
The record is accurately summed up in the intro, which samples both the Fantastic Four show AND Wild Style. It’ DOOM’s way of telling us that he is going off on his own weird tangent, while reminding us that he’s been down with Hip hop since Quinones had crazy legs.
There is a sense of loss throughout the disc. There are a couple lyrical references to DOOM’s brother Sub Roc, who was killed in a car crash in 1994. The skits from the FF show document Dr. Doom’s fall, and paint him as a tragic, slightly pathetic character.
I love DOOM’s loopy, 70s am radio samples, and his goofy sense of humor. I’m excited about the record he is making with Ghostface, which should come out this year. It makes since, too, since Supreme Clientele sampled heavily from the cheesy sixties Iron Man cartoon.
In my stint as a reviewer, I have to listen to a lot off mediocre rap, and MF DOOM’s “Operation Doomsday” is a brilliant reminder of why I like hip-hop: it’s inventive, funky, and out there.
-pst
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
White Stripes Justice
I heard “Icky Thump” recently, the new album by the white stripes. It’s decent, but I can’t say I’m terribly excited by it. I wasn’t that into their last album either. I think I may have hit Maximum White Stripesage….i guess there is only so much stripped-down blues that a boy can digest.
I’m more excited about the new Justice cd (pronounced Just-eees cuz they’re frogs). It’s garbage-house in the style of daft punk, whom they have some relation to.
Speaking of, there is a link on Urb’s webiste to some of the tracks that daft punk have sample from. Check it out here : http://www.urb.com/permalink/1047/Daft-Punk-Samples-Revealed.html
I also have reviews up for T-Hud and the Citizens of Sleep on Rapreviews.
The new stars album is available on the arts and crafts label http://www.arts-crafts.ca/releases.php
That’s all I got.
-pst
I’m more excited about the new Justice cd (pronounced Just-eees cuz they’re frogs). It’s garbage-house in the style of daft punk, whom they have some relation to.
Speaking of, there is a link on Urb’s webiste to some of the tracks that daft punk have sample from. Check it out here : http://www.urb.com/permalink/1047/Daft-Punk-Samples-Revealed.html
I also have reviews up for T-Hud and the Citizens of Sleep on Rapreviews.
The new stars album is available on the arts and crafts label http://www.arts-crafts.ca/releases.php
That’s all I got.
-pst
Monday, July 09, 2007
DIY Bullshit
When I was in junior high, my friends and I made a few DIY hip-hop gems. Using beats from my shitty casio, we would freestyle about corn, our dorky science teacher, and your mom. Evidently we coulda slapped an ugly ass label on that and distributed it as DIY hip hop GOLD. In my brief time as a reviewer, I’ve already come across a lot of self-produced stuff that isn’t much better than what me and my friends were doing. A keyboard, some protocols, some lines about being a “Ridah” and you are good to go. Most of the shittiest stuff is of the gangsta genre, with these melodramatic synthesized strings over snap beats while some emcee tries desperately to sound hard. In general, the lyrical finesse and wordplay that marks good hip-hop is replace by a more streamlined, no-frills approach, so that it is very clear to the listener that the emcee kills people, deals drugs, and has no love for hos.
The real tragedy is that all this stuff uses up valuable natural resources, and just adds to the toxic landfill in the world. I can’t wait for digital files to kill cds and relieve mother nature from having to supply resources for this crap.
Of course, there is good stuff as well, like Citizens of Sleep, who are based out of Ohio. They actually can rhyme, have good beats, and you can download a lot of their stuff free at www.barakanoel.com.
In the meantime, maybe I should dust off my casio and try and make some minor-league goal by rapping about how I’m a hustla who is getting’ on his grind every day, and wouldn’t hesitate to cap any fool, although I miss my fallen soldierz. Peace!
The real tragedy is that all this stuff uses up valuable natural resources, and just adds to the toxic landfill in the world. I can’t wait for digital files to kill cds and relieve mother nature from having to supply resources for this crap.
Of course, there is good stuff as well, like Citizens of Sleep, who are based out of Ohio. They actually can rhyme, have good beats, and you can download a lot of their stuff free at www.barakanoel.com.
In the meantime, maybe I should dust off my casio and try and make some minor-league goal by rapping about how I’m a hustla who is getting’ on his grind every day, and wouldn’t hesitate to cap any fool, although I miss my fallen soldierz. Peace!
Saturday, June 30, 2007
RapReviews.com
I was accepted as a reviewer for www.rapreviews.com, and I've turned in my first review, which may get posted next week. It was of a self-produced album by the New Life Ryders, a crew out of Wichita Kansas who do the kind of low-budget, ultra-dramatic and cliched street rap that i am really not into. I'm currently working on a right up of Troy Hudson (#16 of the Minnesota Timberwolves) rap record, which has pretty remarkable beats.
It's fun actually getting new discs in the mail, and having to put a little more care into my write-ups than i do here. It does mean that i will be listening to a lot of mediocre shit, but then i get to hear some genius stuff i would have never come across, so it works out.
i'm not sure how often i'll update this site, since most of my writing time is gonna be deveoted to rapreviews...but we'll see.
-pst
It's fun actually getting new discs in the mail, and having to put a little more care into my write-ups than i do here. It does mean that i will be listening to a lot of mediocre shit, but then i get to hear some genius stuff i would have never come across, so it works out.
i'm not sure how often i'll update this site, since most of my writing time is gonna be deveoted to rapreviews...but we'll see.
-pst
Saturday, June 23, 2007
My Summer of Love
It's the 4oth anniversary of the summer of love, and there it is getting a lot of press here in San Francisco (most tragically, the fact that the only date they could get for a summer of love concert in Golden Gate Park is the same weekend as Burning Man. Bummer...). I wasn't around for the summer of love, and i'm pretty sure the whole thing would have annoyed the shit out of me, being that i'm not the biggest fan of hippies, hallucinogenics, or jam rock. It dawned on me the other day that my generations version of that era is probably the dot.com days here in SF. For those not blessed enough to be around, in the late 90s SF was full of young rich kids throwing expensive parties, doing expensive drugs, and basically running wild. Everyone was a dj, everyone was on e, and every weekend there was at least one or two massive parties to celebrate the IPO of a website that didn't actually have a business model or way of generating income. I'm pretty sure the whole excitement about the dotcoms was perpetuated by the fact that all the investors were on e and coke, making it really easy for them to get excited about anything.
My mom was in SF in the sixties, and played her own small part in those days. I don't feel especially blessed or proud that I was around for the dotcom days. Mostly i'm just glad that they are no more, and that i survived them without losing too many braincells, or becoming too pickled in bitterness. Just as the optimism of the sixties turned into the excess and nihilism of the seventies, the e-fueled good times of the late 90s were wiped out with the falling stock market and post 9/11 big brotherness.
God, now i've depressed myself.
My mom was in SF in the sixties, and played her own small part in those days. I don't feel especially blessed or proud that I was around for the dotcom days. Mostly i'm just glad that they are no more, and that i survived them without losing too many braincells, or becoming too pickled in bitterness. Just as the optimism of the sixties turned into the excess and nihilism of the seventies, the e-fueled good times of the late 90s were wiped out with the falling stock market and post 9/11 big brotherness.
God, now i've depressed myself.
Friday, June 22, 2007
True Magic
Mos Def, along with Talib Kweli and Rawkus, were meant to save hip-hop about ten years ago from the commercial elements that were ruining it. Fuck bling and hype Williams videos – Mos was keeping it real, taking hip hop back to its roots, and infusing it with artistry and talent.
He released a Black Star album with Talib that critics drooled over, but i was underwhelmed by, then his 199 solo debut, Black on Both Sides, which is pretty damn righteous. He came back a few years later with the rock-infused “A New Danger”, which unveiled his boogie man character and bad rap-rock loving Jack Johnson character. The albums moments of glory were buried under a lot of uneven bullshit, and found the man who was supposed to be saving hip-hop playing part of its worst elements in “The Rape Over”, which was a shitty remake of a Jay-Z track that didn’t hold a candle to the original, and blamed “faggots” for ruining the rap game.
Ten years after he first made a splash, he puts out “True Magic”, which on the surface seems like one of the more half-assed albums in recent memory, from its lack of cover to its mumbled lyrics and lazy rhymes, to it’s multiple (uncredited) remakes. I’m pretty sure that Mos was having beef with his label, so the record may have been his way of inviting them to have sex with themselves.
Here’s the shit of it, though – as half-assed as this record is, it’s still better than most of the other records that have been released this year. Mos manages to perfectly blend soul, r&b and hip hop, something not a lot of other rappers do. The disc also has a nice warm sound to it, in contrast to the icy, synthed out, uber-produced hip-hop that has become common.
My favorite track is “Undeniable”, which has an irresistible old soul sample over which Mos boasts. He doesn’t drop any genius lines, but he doesn’t embarrass the listener either, so it works out. “Sun, Moon, Stars” and “Fake Bonanza” also use old soul samples, and are both damn decent.
As I mentioned, there are two remakes on this album, “Crime and Medicine’s” reworking of an old GZA track, and “Katrina Clap”, which reimagines Juvenile’s “Nolia Clap” as a post-Katrina protest song. Mos Def delvers his lines with a laid-back flow, in stark contrast to the anger seething in the lyrics.
“You better off on crack
Dead or in jail, or with a gun in Iraq
…..
And they got -illions and killions to waste on the war
And make you question what the taxes is for
Or the cost to reinforce the broke levee wall
Tell the boss, he shouldn't be the boss anymore”.
His subdued delivery makes it even more powerful when he finally erupts towards the end of the track, growling “Quit being cheap nigga freedom ain’t free!”
True Magic is not the brilliant album that Mos Def could make and should make, but it is not horrible either. I’m hoping with a new label he’ll put out a new, more thought-out and fully realized disc, but this will do for now.
-pst
He released a Black Star album with Talib that critics drooled over, but i was underwhelmed by, then his 199 solo debut, Black on Both Sides, which is pretty damn righteous. He came back a few years later with the rock-infused “A New Danger”, which unveiled his boogie man character and bad rap-rock loving Jack Johnson character. The albums moments of glory were buried under a lot of uneven bullshit, and found the man who was supposed to be saving hip-hop playing part of its worst elements in “The Rape Over”, which was a shitty remake of a Jay-Z track that didn’t hold a candle to the original, and blamed “faggots” for ruining the rap game.
Ten years after he first made a splash, he puts out “True Magic”, which on the surface seems like one of the more half-assed albums in recent memory, from its lack of cover to its mumbled lyrics and lazy rhymes, to it’s multiple (uncredited) remakes. I’m pretty sure that Mos was having beef with his label, so the record may have been his way of inviting them to have sex with themselves.
Here’s the shit of it, though – as half-assed as this record is, it’s still better than most of the other records that have been released this year. Mos manages to perfectly blend soul, r&b and hip hop, something not a lot of other rappers do. The disc also has a nice warm sound to it, in contrast to the icy, synthed out, uber-produced hip-hop that has become common.
My favorite track is “Undeniable”, which has an irresistible old soul sample over which Mos boasts. He doesn’t drop any genius lines, but he doesn’t embarrass the listener either, so it works out. “Sun, Moon, Stars” and “Fake Bonanza” also use old soul samples, and are both damn decent.
As I mentioned, there are two remakes on this album, “Crime and Medicine’s” reworking of an old GZA track, and “Katrina Clap”, which reimagines Juvenile’s “Nolia Clap” as a post-Katrina protest song. Mos Def delvers his lines with a laid-back flow, in stark contrast to the anger seething in the lyrics.
“You better off on crack
Dead or in jail, or with a gun in Iraq
…..
And they got -illions and killions to waste on the war
And make you question what the taxes is for
Or the cost to reinforce the broke levee wall
Tell the boss, he shouldn't be the boss anymore”.
His subdued delivery makes it even more powerful when he finally erupts towards the end of the track, growling “Quit being cheap nigga freedom ain’t free!”
True Magic is not the brilliant album that Mos Def could make and should make, but it is not horrible either. I’m hoping with a new label he’ll put out a new, more thought-out and fully realized disc, but this will do for now.
-pst
Monday, June 18, 2007
Punk Planet is No More
Yet another indie mag goes under, as Punk Planet announced today that it’s next issue will be it’s last, after 80 issues and 13 years. An email sent to subscribers listed decreasing ad revenues, decreasing subscriber base, and a shitty distribution deal.
I am really saddened by this news, but not surprised. The magazine has been very public about its financial drama over the past two years, and they aren’t the only indie mag to go under recently. Part of it has to do with declining interest in indie records, who were the mags biggest advertisers. People aren’t buying records, so they don’t advertise them, so the magazines that write about them can’t exist. Maybe this is just an example of natural selection – print media doesn’t make as much economic or environmental sense any more, so like the dinosaurs it is going extinct. Even Maxim has taken a hit in recent years.
Their website/forum will stay up (www.punkplanet.com), and I think they will still be publishing books, which is good. I truly hope that the people writing for them find other gigs (or start another zine). PP had some really great writing, and their focus was much wider than just punk music. They wrote about politics, design, art, and indy media. It wasn’t just ranting, or interviews, or glorified pr pieces of friends’ bands. They also were a little more grounded politically than some punk zines, so they weren’t just off on “FUK Big Brother – Bush is a dick!” diatribes.
It sucks, though. I guess there is still the interweb, but you can’t read blogs while you are eating breakfast or on the john.
I am really saddened by this news, but not surprised. The magazine has been very public about its financial drama over the past two years, and they aren’t the only indie mag to go under recently. Part of it has to do with declining interest in indie records, who were the mags biggest advertisers. People aren’t buying records, so they don’t advertise them, so the magazines that write about them can’t exist. Maybe this is just an example of natural selection – print media doesn’t make as much economic or environmental sense any more, so like the dinosaurs it is going extinct. Even Maxim has taken a hit in recent years.
Their website/forum will stay up (www.punkplanet.com), and I think they will still be publishing books, which is good. I truly hope that the people writing for them find other gigs (or start another zine). PP had some really great writing, and their focus was much wider than just punk music. They wrote about politics, design, art, and indy media. It wasn’t just ranting, or interviews, or glorified pr pieces of friends’ bands. They also were a little more grounded politically than some punk zines, so they weren’t just off on “FUK Big Brother – Bush is a dick!” diatribes.
It sucks, though. I guess there is still the interweb, but you can’t read blogs while you are eating breakfast or on the john.
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