Although NPR had the exclusive rights to preview DJ Premier and Royce Da 5'9"'s new album in its entirety a week early its actual release date is today (2018-03-16) and can now be bought on both 2xLP or CD. Preemo and Royce Da 5'9" is somehwat of a match made in heaven and has constantly killed shit since back in 2001 when the team let loose of the underground classic "Boom" and the not so intriguing album cut "My Friend" (where Royce mistreated a slamming Preem beat by talking about his Johnson for four minutes). Since then Premier has appeared on the majority of Royce projects, often being behind the LP:s best tracks. It wasn't until the excellent Freestyle tape "The Bar Exam Vol. 1" and later "Street Hop" that you truly saw the immense potential a full collaboration between the two promised. "Street Hop" was marketed as a modern East Coast classic featuring 6 Preemo productions out of the 18 tracks featured on the LP. For some reason when we finally got our hands on it, there were only 3 Preemo cuts left. And although they all were solidified it came off as a dissapointment. The reason we ended up with that trio is that one couldn't get past sample clearances and the other two had been lincensed to and issued on the Game Recordings label. The double-A side single featured the Preem/Royce bangers "Ding!" and "Hit' Em Up" which really would've worked wonders in making "Street Hop" (which was not a bad album at all anyway) even more street.
So in 2014 finally these two legends got together to release a full-length album under the group name of "PRhyme". With only 9 songs it was a front-to-back LP that both rhymewise and with itsproduction took it straight back to the essence and was undoubtedly one of the best albums of the year. The idea was not to release any standard rap record but in challenging themeselves the entire project was created using samples from the extensive catalouge of Adrian Younge, kind of how Danger Mouse did it with The Beatles for "The White Album" - but with permission of course. Not to mention that they released a deluxe edition adding 4 additional songs once again killing Adrian Younge samples while inviting legends like Black Thought and Phonté. It certainly helped bring that East Coast boom bap back and was true to form one of the best New York albums of the year.
The question is if the duo can do it again - we know of course that when Premier and Royce get together they can make excellent Hip Hop music. But part of PRhyme is that it's a challenge; all beats and samples has to be chopped from a current artist. And since Arian Younge isn't super prolific compare to many of his peers, this time they have gone with Philly based Antman Wonder who shuns samples in his beat making process. What's cool about Antman Wonder is that he doesn't fuck with no fisherman price Casio type of beats but actually stay true to dusty boom bap type beats but completely without samples. Matter of fact, he even made an ode to "Reasonable Doubt" with Skyzooo that way a few years ago.
So just like for the first PRhyme, it's all about live instrumentation from the original sampled artist with Premier chopping it, adding his turntable work, his unmistakable drums and giving it that classic Gang Starr vibe, Still, Antman and Younge are two very different artists so the projects are really quite different and might be a question of taste. Personally I like both a lot but I'm a sucker for Younge's lush soulful soundscapes that volume 1 had to offer. But I was also much more familiar with the original samples there so it could very well be that I need some time to adjust. Save for Rapsody, Roc Marciano (and occassionally) Cee-Lo Green) the guests aren't really my cup of tea. Fucking Yelawolf? 2Chainz? Big K.R.I.T. (i know a lot of people dig him, but I just can't get into him).
Still, it's almost a 60 minutes project and Royce is killing it, Preemo is mostly killing it and I applaud the brothers for trying something different. I have a feeling this will stay in rotation a while and will mostly gets better on each spin so I'm positive on this release. While its no "Daily Operation", "Livin' Proof", "The Sun Rises in the East" or even "Tha Blaqprint" it's a must hear for any serious Hip Hop head so my rating is a somewhat weak 4/5. Don't sleep!
P.S. - A fun tidbit is that this is not the first time DJ Premier and Antman Wonder have worked together, back in 2013 when Skyzoo and Torae dropped their "Barrell Brothers" project, the best song ont the album ("The Aura") was actually produced by DJ Premier and Antman Wonder and it sounded marvellous.
You can pick up the album @ UGHH, HHV, iTunes or Amazon.com.
The Firm album had a lot of things working against it at the time of its release. For one thing Hip Hop was just moving into the shiny suit era where popping cristal and living "the good life" was on constantly being flashed. Now granted a mafioso rap record inspired by Martin Scorse and "Scarface" could definitely get away with spending large money on champagne, fine cuisine and poppin' tags. but it was the shiny suit type beats that didn't work at all. Luckily for every "Firm All Stars" or "Fuck Somebody Else" there as a "Firm Fiasco" or a "Desperados". Secondly these were all New York cats, and some of the hottest cats on the streets at that particular moment at that, yet it was released and co-executive produced by Dr. Dre. This is not a knock on Dr. Dre but we all know that he was in between signture sounds from between his Death Row days and what would become his Aftermath/"2001" sound. That's not to say that Dre didn't deliver bangers but this was a point where everything he touched didn't turn to gold. There's excellent Dr. Dre productions on The Firm album, whcih in fact was the first Aftermath LP, such as "Phone Tap", "Firm Fiasco" and "Untouchable" and these is the type of records we wanted an entire The Firm album to sound like - nothng but street shit. Unfortunately that's only about 50% of what we ended up getting.
The other half of the production team and the co-execs were The Trackmaster who had a long standing relationhip with both Nas, AZ and Foxy Brown at this point but would also go on to manage Nature for his debut album on Colombia in 1999. Granted we can't lay the blame on The Good Doctor's doorstep, neither can we lay it at the extended Trackmasters family (Poke, Tone, L.E.S., Curt Gowdy and Dave Atkinson). Because both teams made great music for the project, and both teams made some equally weak music for the projet as well. If anything I think both the pros and cons should be shared equally between all the major players involved (Dre and his production team, The Trackmasters and their production team, Nas, AZ, Foxy and Nature).
What bugs me is that this could've been a true street classic that would be remembered to this day as a great follow-up to "It Was Written", but it just wasn't to be. Let's start with the negatives and build from there - while AZ absolutely murdered all of his verses, Nature did a good job and Foxy was being Foxy, Nas was occassionally phoning it in but to be fair he did have some excellent verses along the way. Second all the skits beside the intro and maybe one more could easily have found its way to the trash can. Biggie started the stupid sex skit on an Hip Hop album, but seriously who the hell want to listen to AZ or Foxy Brown fuck on record? Nature was dope on this LP so I'm not even going to mention the Cormega connection or what could have been as a negative. What I will mention is the several songs that were either delted from the final tracklist or appeared on B-sides or mixtapes and that could have made the LP a whole lot stronger. But we will get to all that later.
The album had the mafiosos concept set up all the way back with"Affirmative Action" ('It Was Written') and"La Familia" ('Ill Na Na') and the album starts of brilliantly in this fashion with the intro, "Firm Fiasco", the excellent "Phone Tap" and "Executive Decisions". This is quickly then derailed with sugar coated BS like "Firm Family", "Firm All Stars" and "Fuck Somebody Else". However for the first four songs we are on our way to a classic album, Dr. Dre really did his thing on "Phone Tap" and "Firm Fiasco" mainly working together with Chris "Glove" Taylor wo's been around since 'The Chronic' days. The drum programming is straight slamming, the guitar melodies and the occassional electric piano chords and female vocalizations make both "Phone Tap" and "Firm Fiasco" nothing short of Dre classics. And while "Firm Fiasco" is a great introduction to the crew by Foxy, Nas and AZ (god damn, did AZ not murder that verse) but it's "Phone Tap" that is the lyrical masterpiece with Nas and AZ going back and forth over a tapped phone, with the two trying to talk through the static without incriminating themeselves. Dr. Dre plays the phone-tapping fed on the hook here,
"Executive Decisions" is the exact type of shit this album should've sounded more like as it's similiar i vibe and style to both "Affirmative Action" and "La Familia". Nas has a sick opening verse and the hook is straight up crack over those lovely strings but it might just be Nature who shines the brightest here. That is until you hear AZ's unbelivable flow that is though. All in all a monster of a record and at this point people had all the expectations in the world that this LP would be solid as hell.
So then we get to "Firm Family", a Dre produced collaboration between Nature and Dre. This isn't actually a bad record, but it's a Dr. Dre record, complete with the West Coast vibe and live instrumenttion by Sean Cruse (guitar), Kamara Kambon (keys), Jerry Moore (flute), Mike Elizondo (bass) and a summer-type cookout vibe interpolation of Sexy Mama by The Moments (1973). Both Nature and Dre does a good job but once again this should never have been on The Firm record. We needed beats like the three preceeding joints, "Affirmative Action" or "East Coast / West Coast Killaz". Oh well, at least it's a decent summer jam.
Well The Trackmasters sure ain't going to be worse for wear in producing something godawful that have absolutely no business on the album. Unlike "Firm Family" which was actually a tight joint on its own, "Firm All Stars" is The Trackmasters getting jiggy with it and though Nas is on the hook the verses comes courtesy of Foxy Brown and her little brother Pretty Boy. They had joints like "Time" and "State Vs. Sosa" and they thought this wa the way to go? What the actual fuck!
"Fuck Somebody Else", another Dre production, another Foxy Brown solo song. I don't know what the hell these guys were thinking here becasuse this is just wack. It's of course an interpolation of "You're Gonna Make Me Love Somebody Else" by the Jones Girls from 1979. This ain't no Firm shit!
"Hardcore" is once again Poke and Tone getting jiggy with it while Esco and Foxy is going back and forth. While the beats are a little to radio friendly circa '97 for my liking I can dig this as Nas and Foxy got bars on here. And speaking of bars the next joint is really an interlude produced by Dr. Dre and Mel-Man called "Untouchable" featuring a verse Nas ghostwrote for Hose of The Bravehearts. Why the fuck didn't thiey give this the song full treatment, it's that ill.
"Five Minutes to Flush" is Nature solo song, and a concept song at that. As Dre was constantly doing around this time he made interpolations of classics (sort of like Puffy but way better) and here he and Glove is remaking "Five Minutes of Funk" into "Five Minutes to Flush". Basically the Feds are at Nature's door and he better make rid of that drugs he got stashed ASAP. I fuck with this cut, it got that slamming Dre funk, the Roger Troutman talkbox, and an excellent take by Nature. But should it have been on this album, that's the question?
"Desperados" on the other hand is vintage Firm shit, produce by Curt Gowdy, Poke and Tone who's guitar driven beat is instantly rewind worthy. The only fault here is that this joint was originally 6 minutes long as proven by the original leak on a DJ Clue tape. On this album version Nas and Foxy Brown's verses are nowhere to be found and as excellent as Canibus' verse is I'm not sure who actually took it between him, AZ and Nature. Now if we can only get perfect CDQ/NO DJ FLAC version of the original version.
Now we have reached the most commercil record on an album that already has too many of them. Even the producers Poke and Tone kind of dissed this record (in fact L.E.S. produced it while Dr. Dre mixed it and added some live instrumentation). The idea was to come out the gate with a commercil single but you had fucking Nas, AZ and Dr. Dre, what you needed was street singles and a a street album. What's funny is that the remix known as the "World Famous" remix and appeared on some versions of the 12" single was so much better on all levels.
Noreaga appears on "I'm Leaving" together with Nature, and brings a lot of that "War Report" style while Poke and Tone does an excellent job with the guitar heavy production and heavy drum programming. Nature's final verse is some heavy shit for sure. AZ and Haf-A-Mill did a lot of heavy records together and "Throw Your Guns" surely does not dissapoint as the album closer in any way shape or form. Drum programming and bass line is knocking and the guitar sample and the occassional cuts makes for an excellent album closer.
But god damn, is this album frustrting or what? It features probably 30 minutes of really dope music with excellent lyrics, strong beats by some of the best producers in the game, coool concepts, but the remaining 25 minutes is hardly what i would think anyone would wanted from a Firm album. And when you take into account that there's at least 20 minutes of unreleased material that never made the final cut it really tells you how dope this LP could have been. Download "Time" produced by Dr. Dre, and featuring Nas, AZ and Nature below as well as the World Famous remix of "Firm All Stars", featuring Mary J. Blige on the hook! Download @ ZippyShare
01. "Love is Love" (AZ / Nature)
02. "Affirmative Action Remix" (Nas/Cormega/Az/Foxy Brown)
03. "Firm Biz Remix" (The Firm)
04. "Time" (The Firm / Nas / AZ / Nature)
After a somewhat long hiatus Eminem finally dropped his eight album "Revival" - most likely the thematic closer to the trilogy we didn't really know we wanted that also includes "Relapse" (2009) and "Recovery" (2011) which in different ways describes Marsall Mathers' return to a sober life and the hardships and perils of living a stable life without the cruth of those drugs. His latest LP is probably his most honest album yet as he in a heartfelt way finally make up with many of the problms that has made him relapse, yet his big enough to let go off the anger and see his own wrongdoings as well. I'm talking about songs like "Bad Husband" which is a very different track from the somwhat similiar but totally opposite "Kim" for example.
As a white emcee that has put out his fair share of wack records, the "True School" heads love to hate on Em while artists like Jay-Z, Scarface, Rakim, Nas, Royce, DJ Premier, and so forth has nothing but the utmost respect for his artistry. Even before the first single of "Revival" dropped haters was quick appearing out of the woodwork to destroy the unheard product and what it looked like on paper based on all the popsingers and commercial soul/R&B artists that was featured on the tracklist. Don't get me wrong, there's a few real golden turds on here but at 19 tracks and 79 minutes long it's clear that Em knows how to make good music at this point - damn, he basically gave the middle finger to half his fanbase, asking them not to support him, did that stop him from making dumb numbers?
Granted, "Revival" features it's share of weak, uninspired music that would have benefitted tremendously being cut all together but the fact remains that when the LP is good it's really fucking GOOD.
One of the songs that caught flack was the first single "Walk On Water", produced by Rick Rubin and Beyoncé, and that's just ridiciolous in my opinion, It's a different single for sure, but Eminem is really pouring his heart out here, rhyming his three verses over nothing but a Grand Piano and a string orchestra while Beyoncé does a great job with her vocal part and lyrics. I have a feeling that this was not was Em fans was expecting after the hiatus following "Recovery", an album that overall just felt wrong and forced on so many levels. Here he let all his, and Beyonce's, insecurities shine through over an impeccable melodic instrumental. Lines like "As yesterday fades and the Dresden home is burned to the ground/ and all that's left of my house is lawn/ the crowds are gone, and it's time to wash out the blonde/ Sales decline, the curtains drawn....". It's an excellent way to start an album and the five minutes of somberness and honesty does a great job of preparing us for some hardcore ish with what should have been the two street singles "Believe" and "Clorasephtic".
Not only are these two joints bangers in their own right but it's Eminem kicking the younger generation at their own game. You could call them "trap"-type of beats but it's actually Em and his usual team (Luis Resto, Mark Batson and Mike Strange) that's responsible for "Believe" while Mr. Power single handledly kills "Chloraseptic". "Believe" is by far one of the illest joints on the LP, both production wise and lyricallly. The combination of the strings, the A-minor piano chords, the bass and drums that kicks in during the powerful hook, and the hook itself is really something that would work lovely for a single - "Do you still believe in me?/ Didn't I give everything I had to give you to make you see/ I'll never forget if you turn your back on me now/ and walk out, I will never let you live it down/ I'll never quit, do you still believe.... In me!?" Like I said before this really cries out for a video and radio play.
Both on this and the following track "Cloraseptic" Em is beating the youngings at their own game, with the triplet flow made popular by that girly men Migos. And he sure as hell does a terrific job, showing that even a fairly straightforward and simlple rhyme sceme can be ill as syphillis in the right hands. The trap type beat with its agressive bass line, repetitive piano line and powerful drums that would work well in any club. Again Em kills this mumble rappers at their own game and even get Brooklyn emcee Phresher on the hook. Not to mention the remix where we get Phresher and 2 Chains and a three minute long verse from Em that totally obliberates any blogger that dissed the album based on the tracklist and the first singles.
The second single is an excellent joint that is sort of a follow-up to "The Storm" freestyle diss to the so called POTUS, It's a clever song at that, split into two distinct part. The first part is from a racist white police officer's point of view and is set over a rock rap tune based on a Cheech & Choong classic. Similiar to Joyner Lucas "I'm Not Racist" the second part is straight up boom bap Hip Hop where Em steps into the shoes of a Black Lives Matter activist, feeling violated by the boys in blue on a constant basis, There's plenty of quotables here.
Next up is the third single, "River", featuring Ed Sheeran, a song that I really didn't like the first few times I heard it but that has really grown on me. Lyrically it's a good song that a lot of people can identify with, and I surely take a song like this, pop influences and all, over something like "Without Me" or "We Made It". Ed Sheeran and Em surely has chemistry and the story they tell of a failed relationship that culminates in infidelity and abortion. The song is produced by longtime Em collaborator Emile Haynies and both production and vocals are on point - and the video does a good job of catching the visuals of the record. In other words we are 5 out of 5 "Revival" records so far. Unfortunately we are now at the point where things takes a turn for the worse.
Had the album held a solid 10 songs then this could have been a very focused album but as par for course lately Em is more often than not trying to cram like 20 tracks and have a little something for everyone. Big mistake! I for one relaly liked 3/4 of Rick Rubin's productions on "MMLP2". Hearing their Beastie Boys homage on "Bezerk" was nothing short of excellent, "Rhyme & Reason" was pretty brilliant and Rubin, Kendrick Lamar and Eminem om "Love Game" was pure Hip Hop at its finest. So with that being said Eminem and Rick Rubin can be a great combination, But who the hell came up with the idea of sampling Joan Ett's "I Love Rock & Roll" and barely doing a better interpretation than Britney Spears. And to make it an obnoxious misogynistic joint with weak punchlines like "Your booty is heavy duty like diarreahea" or "You're so fucking fly that you belong in the mile high club". As if that wasn't enough, Rubin's next contribution is basically the same type of song - but instead of Joan Etts he's actually sampling Mark Wahlberg and John C. Reily coked out of their mind recording their "Boogie Nights" demo "Feel The Heat". Punchlines includes "I ask her do she want a computer lodged in her vagina/ Said my dicks is an apple, she said put it inside her,,,," While track 6 to 12 features some good lyrics and themes overall they are simply bad records that you don't want to hear again. Track 12, "Framed" is a monster of a record that any Emnem fan from the Slim Shady days to the "Relapse" days are gonna have a field day. It's certainly a Slim Shady record but with some politicial agenda, given how several emcees' lyrical output have been used as evidence in trials. Em is taking this agenda and building a case over super underrated producer and DJ Muggs associate Fredwreck. If it wasn't for the hilarious Steven Avery reference you could easily believe this was an unrelased track, but as such for any doubteers this is pure proof that Em never lost a step. The same goes for "Offended", a lyrical onslaught with a flow that's up there with the best and produced by IllaDaProducer and Eminem. The only downside is the extremely wack hook which works better in the sandbox than on a record. Following this two excellent joints, we get a lyrical boomerang featuring P!NK called "Need Me" which is all sorts of bad and really boogles the mind whose idea it was to place that song there. Because as Eminem himself said in an interview on the album the epitome of the album is the three final songs - "In Your Head", "Castle" and "Arose". And they sure as hell make up for all the wackness we had to endure between track 6 and 12 (plus 15). I'm big on thematic concept records and "In Your Head", produced by Scram Jones, is sort of like the calm before the storm, but the two final records that closes the album is a one-two-punch that's pure excellence. "Castle" is produced by the always reliable DJ Khalil and is as heartfelt as they come. Liz Rodriguez vocal hook is nothing short of beautiful and the accustic guitar really add to the overall atmosphere. And when the drums kick in and the Farfisa Organ closes the song as Mathers take his suicide attempt by downing his methadone pills its nothing short of a masterpiece. But the song isn't over there, the story continues under the title "Arose", Sampling Bettle Middler's classic "The Rose" which is heard very slightly under Eminem's verses. Melonhead claimed that this was a case of bad mixing which is all wrong, had the Middler sample been put to the same volume as the verses it would have been travesty. Instead it we are aware of the well known sample being there and that is certainly enough. We had "Walk On Water" but its relaly "Arose" that proves that Rick Rubin is still a top producer when it comes to Hip Hop and overall this is one of the best Eminem songs since the last 15 years, If you can relate this definitely hits home and with the beat, the scratches, the vocals and the flow this is as good as Hip Hop gets these days. This is so heartfelt as it follows up on "Castle", with Em writing letters to his daughter and after Kim taking custody of their girl and then loosing Proof he decides to take his own life. As "Arose" begins one of the most heartfelt moments on the song is Mathers soul leaving his body and seeing himself from up above - something a lot of people experience it after they die in the physical form.
And as his last line on "Castle" is "excuse the cursing, baby/ but just know that I'm a good person/ though they portray me as cold/ And if things should wosen, don't take this letter i wrote as a goodbye note/ because your dad's at the end of his rope/ I'm sliding down a slippery note, Anyways sweetie I better go/ I'm getting sleeping.... Shit I don'r know". These lines and meaning is totallty flipped as Em decides he wants to live, and flush the Methadone in the toilet while deciding ti not only give his life another chance but also his rap careér.
Last week out of nowhere JAY-Z dropped his thirteenth studio album pretty much out of nowhere; no promotion, no hype, just 37 minutes of fantastic music. In fact this might be one of the Hov album that will go down as one of his best, a future classic alongside "Reasonable Doubt", "Blueprint" and "The Black Album". I loved "American Gangster" so I'm a bit on the fence on which album is better but this is more focused and the lyrics is just on another level, totally original from the JAY-Z we know. With one of the best emcees in the game meeting one of the best producers of the industry, NO ID and Hov has created an album that brings back the values of what a really great Hip Hop album could and should be. "4:44" is entirely focused both from a lyrical and a sonic perspective and the two mesh exceptionally well. It reminds me of classic albums from the late '80s where an album was treated as a body of work that was being worked equally hard on by both the artist and the producer to sound like a body of work that could stand on its own. From the first track "Killing JAY-Z" to the final song "Legacy" Jay-Z is telling the story of where he is at today, and it's brutally honest at the same time as it's packed with slick lines that I already noticed went straight over fuckers heads. And what's great is that the music in itself does so much in telling that very same story.
Jay-Z has built a career on being a tough business man who's great at talking slick to girls, loving to spend lavishly on designer brands and champagne and he can outrap almost anyone, and not only does he know it - he lets it be known. But what made Jay succesfull isn't only the ill flow, his fabolous lifestyle and fierce battle bars but also the little hints of honesty that allowed us to come close to Jigga and learn about him, faults and all. He was never as transparent as say Nas or DMX, far from it, but for almost every album he had a joint or two where he invited listeners into his world to let us partake in the world of the real Jay-Z. These records were often the stand-outs on each LP and I dare say that if it wasn't for these type of tracks he wouldn't have made it to the top. I'm talking songs like "You Must Love Me" (such a heartfelt verse, describing how he shot his own brother and just ran), "Blueprint (Momma Loves Me)", "Moment Of Clarity" and "Where Have You Been" (making up with the father that abandoned him), "D'Evils", "Regrets", "Lucky Me" and so on. I feel that since his 2006 comeback he has kind of shied away from these type of topics which in my opinion has hurt these proects somewhat. It's like they've been missing something.
With "4:44" I'm glad to say that JAY-Z is back in full efect and it's easy to see why he often comes up in discussions about the G.O.A.T. Hov is a grown man now, he is in Forbes magazine, he could care less about petty beef, and here he basically decided to do his most personal album yet, It's like a 36 minute therapy session, and the way thing starts is pure brilliance. With "Kill Jay-Z" he is admitting his faults and killing his ego to get to the bottom of Shawn Carter really is. There's quotable for days here as it's basically an older, more experienced man speaking to his younger self, explaining where he did go wrong. "The Story Of O.J." is another standout from the set which is directed to black people in the US, and once again also can be seen as a wiser Jay-Z speaking to a younger, more immature version of himself. He talks about managing our finances in a proper way, investing money and not flexing. The line "Y'all on the 'Gram holding money to your ear/ there's a disconnect, we don't call that money over here" is a classic Jay double entendre that could've been straight from "Reasonable Doubt". A lot of fools don't get how slick that line is, only hearing the "holding money to your ear on Instagram" flexing" line when its the lines that come after that really solidifies it at lyrical and worthy of recognition.
All through this NO ID certainly rises to the challenge and it's such a beautiful thing to just hear two artists vibing in the studio coming up with a really coherrent sound. TThey have worked before, but often with at least a gang of producers around - the one song I can think off that was just Jay and NO is "Death of Autotune", and matter of fact that wouldn't be too out o place here. Sonically that is. It's a great mixture of sampled gospel, soul and jazz classics and live instrumentation coupled with some real hard drums but the beats never got to busy to take the top spot from Jay-Z. He touches on so many honest topics here, from his mother's homosexuality and finall coming out the closet on the more laid-back but beautiful "Smile". There's the title track (see video above) which features a truly heartfelt apology from Hov to his wife for cheating repeatedly on here (as macho as Hip Hop is, could this be the first record of a man saying he is truly sorry for that). No ID again does a beautiful job of combining a repeated vocal sample that stretches out and finds the team in the melting pot between R&B and boom bap.
And that's halftime, but there's really no point in breaking down every song as this is as true an album as they come and I dare to say that 10 years from now this will be looked upon as one of Jay-Z's classics. And the same goes for NO ID as this was undoubtedly a team effort. It's a blessing that Jay-Z realized he doesn't need a million and one producers to make a hot album; just get one really talented guy that understands your vision and we're almost there. Lyrically this is a new chapter in Jay-Z's book and one that is very welcome, he's grown up and got some rich man problems but that doens't mean that he's gone soft on us. There's plenty of shit here for the average man to relate to and for the rest there's a lot of advice to be taken heed to. I really liked "American Gangster" but as that was a concept album perhaps it's more honest to say that is Jigga's best joint since "The Black Album" some 15 years ago. No matter how you feel about this man be sure to check it out ASAP and let's hope that more artists follow suit in letting one or two producers handle their whole album front to back.
If Kool G Rap would mumble-lisping nothing but double time flows over trap beats for the rest of his career from this point on, he would still and forever be one of Hip Hop's most cherished treasures. He helped change the game at least two or three times through an out-of-this-world wordplay that's out of this world, a delivery and cadence that is instantly recognizable, On top of that he brought mafioso and gangster rap to the East Coast and he did it damn beliveable over the hardest East Coast bangers you could imagine. And he is still doing his thing although his P.N.C. DJ Polo has stepped back from the scene. I'm a big fan of his three albums with DJ Polo which he made as part of The Juice Crew (meaning Marley Marl, Sir Jinx, Large Professor, Eric B and Trackmasters oversaw the end product).
1.1. "4.5.6" and "Roots of Evil"
In 1995 he decided to go for dolo - no Juice Crew, no DJ Polo, and the result was one of his hardest album of his career - taking multi-sylllables crime sagas to the next level over some of the ruggedest East Coast mid-'90s bangers signed Dr. Butcher, Naughty Shorts (remember him), T-Ray and Buckwild. As for guests his mission was to give some up-and-coming really talented cats their shine - how about MF Grimm, B-One and Nas, To me, "4,5,6" was the last all-around classic G Rap album, which is not to say that he han't dropped plenty of heat since but never this focused again. For example in 1998 he dropped "Roots of Evil", getting away from his home town of NYC to fully record this gangsta epos in Arizona. There's plenty of hot stuff on this LP, especially considering it's a front-to-back concept album which is best experienced fully focused on with a pair of headphones on. Some of the beats aren't all that interesting, while some definitely are epic, but G Rap in his prime is one of the few emcees who can kill a mediocre beat and make a real jam out of it. Just check a song like "Hitman's Diary", "Home Sweet Funeral Home" (Papoose first session), "A Thug's Love Story Pts. 1,2,3" and so on. It's deifnitely a solid album, and an underrated one at that. 1.2. Making ends meet at Rawkus Now throughout the years Giancana (i'm not even going to mention that was the travesty known as "The Giancana Story" on Rawkus) has in a way sold out his integrity for cash, appearing on several wack non-rappers that can't even the slightest bis e called rappers. The worse one was trust fund baby who got the trust fund money from his father to have The Kool Genius Of Rap not only spitting on his song but also appeared extremely uncomfortable in the music video. Luckily the video ís now blocked, but it took a couple of years. But we all got to make a living and the reason "The Giancana Story" failed was mainly due to A&R;s who didn't understand they had a legend on their hands. Just check out the solid 12" single "First Nigga", "The Streets", "Thug For Life", none songs that appeared on the final product despite being laced by DJ Premier, Buckwild and Younglord, respectively. At the same time he dropped impressive verses on Big L's "The Big Picture" and the Reflection Eternal LP. 2.0. REVIEW: Return Of The Don (2017)
01. Return of the Don It's been a few years since Giancana dropped an album as cohessive as this. Right of the bat we get a bass heavy joint that just over a minut give us the entire narrative of what to expecta. Ater a sample from a concert where the crowd is shouting in hype to summon the artist in question, The bass melody, slamming drums and the low-key opera vocals running behind the strong voice of G Rap is just acceerate, As it's one of the only solo cuts on the album one wish it was longer. But a solid opening that sets the tone nonetheless. 02. Mack Lean (Ft. Fred The Godson & AG Da Coroner) The druns are hard but the flute sample give the song an exotic vibe to it. G Rap sets it off nicely with some choice quotes but once Fred The Godson and AG Da Coroner the discrepancie between an excellent emcee and the standard rappers becomes very apparant. Usually you want to start your apbum with a banger that will give you the straight up strink-face. For some reason G Rap decided to kick things off with the weaiest cut on the project. 03. Criminal Outfit (Ft. Noreaga) Now we're talking! "Niggas want to juks us, turn 'em to pressure cookers", and shouting out 5 Family Click and even N.O.R.E. comes through. Something I noticed about NORE, on a solo record he can spit some real amateur bars but when he's got something to prove ("Hate" with Blaq Poet, this with G Rap, the joints with Big Pun) he can really step up to the plate. The percussion beat is pure excellence, and the mixture of dark synthesizers and electric guitars create an agressive mood just perfect for the album. Ir's no wonder that Mo$$ is the only producer not affiliated with Year Round that's signed a production deal with DJ Premier and here he really proves he can hang with the legends for a full album. 04. Wise Guys (Ft.Lil' Fame, Freeway & Statk Selekthah) The first single releaed from the project and it's easy to see why. This could've come straight from "4,5,6"; straight up boom bap with a hard jazz flavor, excellent drum and bass combo with a beautiful soulful vocal sample. Giancana and Freeway delivers that real shit, Lil' Fame is always great to hear but he sort of sound like he's on Autopilot here. The dot over the I is definitely Statik Selektah turntable wizardry on the hook - I really wish he or Premier had supplied more turntable work here, but you can¨t win them all. All around an excellent joint. 05. Time's Up Following on the uptempo boom bap posse cut that was "Wise Guy", the bass and drums is all agressive, only slightly breaking up for a nice soulful vocal sample and an electric organ loop reminiscent of Bo Hansson. Best of all this is one (of only two songs on the entire project) that stands as a G Rap solo song and as such he makes the most of it. And so does MoSS. 06. Out For That Life (Ft. Raekwon) Moss and G Rap is an excellent combination, that much is clear by now. Keyboards, drums, bass, strings, organ and flutes creates a fascinating soundbed that both G Rap and guest Raekwon makes the most of. These two should undoubtedly make an album together as their styles go together like fish in water.. 07. Capitol Hill (Ft. Sheek Louch & Cormega) Another excellent G Rap collaboration on the short project and both lyrically and muscally it makes the most of the ocassion as it might just be the hardest joint on the entire LP. Sheek Louch doesn't have the lyrical grace of Giancana or 'M3ta but if we're talking sheer energy and street presence he sounds right at home on here. And they obviously decided to end this with a big red cherry on top as Cormega drops the illest verse on the entire track - "Equal opportunity was merily a dream/ The illegal life influenced me I reacted like a savage who's been civilized. Seen Rikers as a rite of passage/ My mind adaptated to supplying packets and writing raps quite emphatically/ I tramped over Tragedy/ Understanding the clarity, helped to see/inaccurate excpect to see the half of me gradually proved wrong, gradually proven wrong/ substantiay it merely an excuse to be mad at me/ it sucks to come after me/ Sheek and G Rap smashed this beat drastically/ if not for rapping B, a siniliar reality the listener in particular in the street..." What a monster of a track too, MoSS beats are constantly excellent and G Rap has gathered some of the finest emcees in the game and even then there's no question who's the most taented spitter on this album. This album, although short, is a true blessing. 08. Running (Ft. Termanology & I'm not too big fan of Termanology, its just something about him that bugs me, and I think he's way weaker than the other guests and the main artist here. That's not to say he is bad, and MoSS boom bap beat and sampled saxophone and piano keys create a nostalgic piece that really wotks well. However, theres a big discrepancie between G Rap and Termanology. Term got some nice punchline, but G Rap got lines which sounds truly one with the music, his voice over that marvelous saxophone sample is just something else.. Hardly filler and luckily we get a solid Sagon verse to boost. 09. The World is Mine( (Ft. Willie The Kid, Crooked I & Pearl Gates) This is the obligatory posse cut featuring Willie The Kid and Pearl Gate and of course KING Crooked, and it's an intriguintg soul infected boom bap affair. Not the strongest song on the LP but Moss comes through and so does Willie The Kid. As a stand-alone it's far from a standout but as part of this album it works very well. Overall it's a very good, thought-out album both from a lyrical and production stand point. I for one hope that MoSS ajd G Rap will ccontiue in thiis vein. They certainly got chemistry, 10. Popped Off (Ft, Sean Price & Ransom) Sean Price, Ransom appear on antother posse cut near the end of the album and they all sound good over this soulful, melodic production that MoSS cooks up. The sampled chorus sounds really natural and add a lot to the overal song. Sean Price absolutely murders this agresivvely as only he can and my guess is it's a tribute to this fallen legend as Giancana doesn't even appear on the track, leaving it all to Sean P and his ight hand man.. 11. Rest in Peace (Ft. Conway & The Machine Oh shit! This is a slamming outro, just like he did with "4,5,6" and "Roots Of Evil" G Rap invites up-and-coming very talented emcees and MoSS goes all out with unpredictable HARD ass drums, an addictive bassline, wah-wah guitars, and G Rap getting his most agressive flow on."Where I'm from it's poverty stricken/ For you to make it out you need to win a lottery ticket/ I set my eyes on my goal like a robbery visit/ mad dissapointed to set the shit, You got to be kidding/ had to unleash the beast to be a side of me flipping... Rest in peace!", Again it's a short, agressive cut and talented but relative newcomer Conway and Westside Gunn definitely hold their own almost as well as tje star of the shoe. Very good album closer for what is esentially G Rap's best LP in years. 3.0. CONSLUSION This album comes highly recommended, it's one of G Rap's msot cohessive albums in several years. Bangers upon bangers upon bangers, certainly no weak verses, delivereis, guests, cuts or beats here. Let's hope MoSS and Giancana will continue to work as this is about as good as it gets. The guests, while I wouldn't mind 2-3 G rap solo sogs more all come through. It's evident they had something to prove rhyming wiht one of the true Hip Hop legends. Don't sleep on this release, Easily a very strong 4/5 rating. Tomorrow, I'm gonna review G Rap's stop in Copenhagen during his first anf only Scandinavian tour. So stay tuned!
THE INTRODUCTION - How did we get at this point? RZA and his Wu-Tang Clan brethren were one of the main reasons I feel in love with Hip Hop and also an imporant part in what made me so interested in sample based music. I've written extensively about the Wu and The RZA on these forums throughout these years, and as I made clear in my rceet artcle on "Bobby Digital: In Stereo", there's to my mind never been as talented Hip Hop producer around. He totally threw out the rule book and said "fuck it, if it sounds good to my ears it will sound good to others". Loops that didn't fully connect, sounds of rusty chain being dragged throughout entire songs, loops played backwards and accentuated by a scratch, and often extremely simple piano lines (which wss a main feature of "Return to the 36 Chambers"; ODB's debut). Even Pete Rock has gone on record saying that he was flabbergasted that he was able to make stuff like this come out as dope, but he couldn't other than recognize his genius. RZA was always a DJ and went entirelty by ear, if a number of elements might work, if it souded good once he put it together (many producers like True Master has likeed his production style and layering of samples to a house of carts - if one card/sample falls, everything is blown). There's a saying that if it's not broke, don't fix it - but few producers has moved so far from his original style so that he has alienated a large majority of his old fans.
The first big change happened in the early days of recording "Wu-Tang Forever". When visiting a music store to buy 10 000 USD worth of samplers, computer software and production tools, he had a sort of "epiphany" if you will. The store clerk, or music demonstrator or whatever, recognized RZA and being one of those obvious hip-hop haters, and even worse a disgrunled wannabee musician that couldn't work with music other than selling the materal to real musicians. Recognizing RZA he not only attacked this man whose music was praised by millions of people, he went as far as saying that The Abbot wasn't even a real musician by any stretch of the word. As RZA grew up on the Stax, Motown and classic Soul of the '70s he probably had long wanted to play an instrument and compose in the same way as masterminds like Al Green. This was the day that the seed that gradually started to change Wu-Tang's music was gradually beginning to change. Diggs started reading up and studying western music theory which of course is a truly great and important mathematical sysem, though it somewhat doesn't conform with the sound of sample based Hip-Hop. As RZA was still on his old path (putting together sounds like a DJ, by ear, at his point) I'm sure that part of his immersion in this musical theory originally gave him some amazing insights that allowed him to do some absolutely marvelous ish by conforming to two worlds. The first beat he applied his newfound knowledge on was the Wu-Tang Clan single "Triumph" and many other songs on "Wu-Tang Forever", and then "Bobby Digital (In Stereo)". The problem was that the unpredictability of a RZA sample slowly started to diminish more and more throughout the years, and that had been one of the main things that really was his niche.
To say that RZA learning and understanding western music theory and striving to learn instruments like piano and guitar single handledly destroyed RZA's legacy as the greatest hip hop producer of time is nothing short of plain bullshit. It was more weapons at his disposal but you could sometime tell he so despearetely felt he wated to be an accepted "real" musician that he forgot his origins and like him and his Wu brothers (and many others) often has said - "you can't know your future unless you know where you came from"). There's amazing RZA productins where he succesfully meshes the western musical traditions, symphonies orchestras, his knack for cinematic scoring (which has always been evident in his music since the mid-'90s) with raw rhyming. Some of the best examples of more recent songs are "Fatal" and "Thirsty" from the "Blade Trinity" soundtrack and the absolutely mindblowing "Chambers Of Fear" (see above). And he was still giving artists like Ghost ("Run", "Kunta Fly Shit", 2004), Mehtod Man (five tracks on "4:21", 2006) and Masta Killa (three tracks for "No Said Date", 2004) that vintage Wu sound. Not to mention something super gritty like the "Brutality" single for Sunz Of Man member Prodigal Sunn that was released in 2005 - or how about the more recent joints he gave Game and Talib Kweli, respectively.
I could easily make a compilation of newish RZA beats that still bangs HARD as hell to show you that he can bring that back when he wants to. But I'm not going to act like RZA is the producer he once was neither. Whenever The Abbot drops a really hot beat that make you throw on the stink face is getting rarer and rarer. For me the last RZA produced albums that I really and truly fell in love with from fron-to-back was "8 Diagrams" (yep, I said it - amazing album right there, and I'm going to write a separate article on that one soon enough ro expand my thoughts on why I think its one of the best albums of 2007) and the "Afro Samurai" soundtrack(s) (mainly the first one, though the second one was about 50/50 on the bangers scale - so combining them as I have suggested before makes for a damn fine album). "A Better Tomorrow" was not a bad album but it wasn't what we as Wu fans wanted to hear, but whereas its group predecessor had a whole lot of character, was experimental in nature and carreid a somber mood throughout this album sounded somewhat run-of-the-mill.
THE REVIEW (5/10)
And now there's this collaboration with guitarist, singer and instrumentalist Paul Banks of alternative rock band Interpul. An unexpted collaboration if I ever heard of one. I have a hard time imagine there's many people who are both Interpol and Wu-Tag fans and though I only heard the album one time, I really don't have any urge to play it again. The juxtapoisition of these two musical styles sound rather forced, yet it's its own thing and i don't think it will really satisfy either Wu fans or Interpol fans. RZA's verses sound to self-conscious as he feel the need to say something profound but ofen falling flat. Some of the beats have interesting aspects but then they are co-producitions that are musically world aparts. I kind of like the first single "Giant" and there's music that can be repated here but overall it's the most dissapointing album The Abbot has ever been apart of. Of course he's not going go back to Gravediggaz days but it's quite clear he didn't give two fucks about his oriignal fans her - instead it seems he was aiming for recognition by the white indie press and fans, which is just said consiering that this is the guy whose music that everyone from Hollywood actors, to politicanss to the junkie on the corner loved. But the music they love him for is already there and was made between 1992 and 2006 (some would say 1998 but I think it's idiotic to claim RZA hasn't doe much marvelous music since then, albeit less frequetly).
"Anything But Words" isn't something anyone but RZA and Paul Baks themeselves would want to hear, and this is coming from someone who has always defeneded and embraced (most of) The Abbot's musical changes and challenges. Will we ever see a classic RZA produced album again ? At this point and time, it seems unlikely but he has suprised us before. These days it seems that the best RZA helmed tracks apepars on the various soundtrack he's working on. "The Man With The Iron Fist" was actually a very dope album and though he didn't really produce the majority of them, he was the de-facto leader and mastemrind behind "Chamber Music" and "Legendary Weapons" - a collection of Clan members, Killa Beez and underground New York emcees entangled in rhyming sessions on a given topic, set to the live rendition of typical hip hop beats y The Reveleations. All very solid albums, and despite what some might ´say, there's still hope for future Wu bangers, but remember it's not 1995 anumore.
I know a lot of people disagree with me, claiming that just because LL made soft records for the ladies he was never one of the true greats. I call that massive bullshit and history revision, all the way back to the classic "Radio" - one of the first real Hip Hop classics - to "B.A.D.", "Mama Said Knock You Out", "14 Shots to the Dome" (you can read more about my thoughts on why it's a truly great album by clicking the text above) and "Mr. Smith" he damn near had a flawless discography. And he had a style of his own, no other emcee could credibly slaughter emcees like on "Mama Said...", encapsule everything Hip Hop is about on his breakthrough classics "Rock The Bells" and "I Need A Beat" and then make a super saccharine hit like "I Need Love" while mainitaining his street cred, but that's LL for you. When 1995 came around he dropped his last potent disc, though there's been loose bits and pieces as recent as 2013 ("Rocking With The G.O.A.T.", that Marley Marl freestyle over the "Mahogany" sample, etc) but he's definitely a has-been. But from 1985 to 1995 he was a force to be reckoned with and deinitely someone I bought every album from - there was the half-dud that was "Walking Out Of The Panther", that despite some really dope moments ("Fast Peg", "Jack The Ripper", "Going Back to Cali", "Nitro", "It Gets No Rougher") was a cheesy, half-assed album that felt forced and out of touch with Hip Hop in '89
Luckily for him, Marley Marl was the remix king back then and took on the LP single "Jingling Baby" for the 12" B-side which became THE version that blew up and started an amazing relationship that lasted two LP:s. But after those two albums it was time for LL to move on, thank Marley for making his comeback possible and making him a force to be reckoned with and he started recording the "Mr. Smith" album. I know some people dislike this album but to me it's the best album LL ever did as far as balancing the smooth with the hardcore and though it's a little dated now, it's the perfect album to either play when you're with your girl or just chilling by yourself. The transition from one of the raunchiest sex anthems on commercial radio in the '90s ("Doin' It") or the sweet but honest "Hey Lover" featuring Boyz II Men to super hardcore monster cuts like "I Shot Ya " (both the original solo version and the posse remix with Prodigy, Keith Murray and Foxy Brown) should be a little jarrig but somehow it all works very well a s a unified body of work. A good example is the opening cut "Hip Hop" where LL professes his love for Hip Hop over a smooth beat and does it in words and a tone that could almost be a love song but wihout ever coming off as cheesy. This is without a question the last album LL ever did that you could bump front-to-back and even have any kind of urge to do so. "Phenomenon" was one of the wackest albums by a legend ever put out, and only had one, maybe we can stretch it to two two redeeming songs out of ten. And I know a lot of people really like "G.O.A.T." and consider that LL's final solid release, but aside from the excellent opening song (labeled as the "Intro"), "Ill Bomb" (which was already released on a compilation), and the bonus track "Shut 'Em Down" the majority of the album, while it had its moments, felt very forced...
If LL had never made another record after. "Mr. Smith" nobody could say he was and is a true Hip Hop legend, complete with the whole package as like his previous albums it doesns't feel forced in the least, It's a very well thought out, sequenced and well performed project. And though he left Marley behind, he had the assistance of Rashad Smith, Easy Mo Bee, Trackmasters, Chad Elliot and Chryskillz - all hot producers in the mid-'90s and they gave LL a really cohessive project, much thansk to it being exective produced by Poke and Tone alog with LL and Bay Chris Lighty. So once again from 1985 to 1995, LL dropped five really incredible albums that cemented his legacy in Hip Hop and though he has released more wack albums by this point he ocassionally still comes through with a firey track to remind old time fans what he is still capable of. Why he doesn't do his old fans proud is beyond me, but that's LL for you - like Canibus said, "99% of your fans wear high heels" and as the years has passed he has catered more and more to that demographic. Sadly. But if you ever doubt LL throw on "Radio", "Mama Said Knock You Out" or "Mr. Smith" and know that this was once an extraordinaire artist in full control of his musical output.
One last thing to close this throwback review with a goodie for your headphones. On all of the album versions of "Mr. Smith", both explicit and clean versions, one of the best songs on the LP ("No Airplay") is censored like crazy. Why LL and Def Jam choose to do this is beyond me considering the song is as explicit as can get and the theme is it's raunchy enough to gain no play on the radio, hence it ended up only as an album cut and as the B-side to the promo single of "The Life". Luckily that single is the only way to ge ta hold of the original uncut version and it's an amazing listen without all that jarring edits, a true LL classic. Check it out below straigt from the 12" single and Turn that MOTHERFUCKER up!
When discussing RZA as a marvel of Hip Hop production the template that really shows his depth and range is usually accepted to be his work between "Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)" (1993) and "Wu-Tang Forever" (1997), the two WTC group albums, and the solo albums in between. Those latter projects is what we commonly refer to as the first round of solos, five albums which each offered a unique look into the starring emcee's persona, style and musical preferences - or their respective chamber as the Wu themeselves would call it. The way RZA managed to craft a complete body of work for each individual emcee (that was also distinct from the group projects) which was easily distinguishable from the previous and next projects through their sonic substance and either the samples used or the way they were used. The music created for those albums not only reflected the emcees voices but also a sound which were the musical equivalents of their respective personality. "Ironman" (1996) is a great example. For Ghostface who always had a strong love for the soul classics of the '60s and '70's, RZA used those type of records as sample souces (Al Green, Jackson 5, The Persuaders, etc.) and took a cleaner and more polished approach to the music than he did for Raekwon's hard hitting, red hot street opera released a year earlier. RZA and Ghost even invited Force MD's and Delphonics to add their voices to the album and created their own take of a heartfelt soul classic with Mary J. Blige on the autobiographical "All That I Got Is You". It's no question that this was clearly Ghostface's chamber, his personal work, and RZA did a marvelous job of tailoring it to suit his musical needs. In contrast compare it with Method Man's "Tical" (1994) which was all around super grimey, dark and dusty. Layered with unorthodox sounds, heavy drum programming and such heavy low end that the basslines would damn near blow out your speakers ("Biscuits" is a good example), the close-to-scary darkness that surrounded the songs was the musical equivalent of the blunts dipped in honey that Meth supposedly smoked at the time. Each of the albums RZA produced around this time can be described by pointing out their differences, but it's also important to note that despite each album being easily distinguished from the next, RZA also managed to create them in a way that collectively would help create an unmistakable Wu sound - a sound that to this day has never succesfully been re-created by anyone else (despite superb "interpretations" by people like True Master and Allah Maethematics).
I would like to challenge this commonly accepted discourse by making a case for the inclusion of RZA's very own solo debut "Bobby Digital: In Stereo" (1998) to be considered as a natural part of the aforementioned first round of albums that defined RZA as a producer and built the Wu-Tang brand. In that case it both marks the end of an era as well as the beginnings of a new one, something that can be said for "Wu-Tang Forever" as well. Coming two years after Ghostface's soulful celebration and embracement of his life, beats and rhymes, RZA went back to his well of inspiration to craft yet another totally individual chamber of sounds within the Wu-Tang pantheon. But this time the resulting body of work would take even the most loyal of followers by surprise as RZA stripped down the majority of what had made him number #1 to the hoards of people who worshippped at his altar - his mastery of creating music from samples. Although his various albums had contained very different styles they all shared the common thread of being sample based music. Around 1996 he had instead begun experimenting with a wide range of keyboards and synthesizers which he dubbed his "digitized orchestra" while also taking up Western music theory. Looking back at the album today and putting it within a wider context we can however see that this wasn't as sudden a transformation as was once believed the first time fans heard the synthesized "B.O.B.B.Y." blast through the speakers. I would say that the earliest precursor that could be considered Bobby Digital material would be the Hide-Out Remix of the Method Man single "The Riddler" (from 1995's Batman Forever soundtrack). Another joint that appeared months before the first single from "In Stereo" is called "And Justice For All..." which was featured on the Razor Sharp compilation "Wu-Tang Killa Beez: The Swarm". Naturally, a lot of the stuff we heard were already beginning to take shape on "Wu-Tang Forever" with its stripped use of samples in favor of digitized keyboards based on chord progressions and European music theory.
With this in mind it's clear that this "new" sound wasn't something that The RZA had haphazardly thrown together with the simple reason of doing away with sample-based music. This was a style that he had been working on and trying to perfect for quite some time, and someone with as good an ear as The Abbot has proven to master a style rather fast. What makes "In Stereo" so intriguing from a production standpoint is that it's still quite firmly rooted in the unpredictability and originality that came from RZA being a producer from starting out as a DJ (basing everything by ear), in contrast to a producer working slavishly from music theory (basing everything on "logic"). This unpredictability is something that RZA to a large degree lost as he became more immersed in Western musical theory, but on here he had yet not truly "got a grip on it" more than the most basic stuff, which allowed him to create a sound that mixed traditional and unexpected elements. Two great examples of this is "Unspoken Word" and "Mantis". On the latter cut he has the fat drums programmed, a repetitive piano loop, and really very little else, until he chooses to use what should, by all natural logic, be an incredibly annoying sound effect that sounds something like a repetitive control tone. This is used to create a kind of melody and is then looped across the entire track. With Bobby, Masta Killa and Tekitha all going hard as fuck the end result is hypnotic in its brilliance. The inclusion of . "Unspoken Word" similarily creates a hypnotic groove out of a fascinating anomali, created by a rock hard, but very short loop with a vocal sample that never gets to finish before it is looped back again. This keeps repeating for 5 minutes straight while RZA spits some of the hardest bars on the album - there's a lot of quotables on here and to me this would've been a better first single than the somewhat mediocre "B.O.B.B.Y.".
Like the preceding Wu-Tang albums he produced "In Stereo" is a very cohessive and thematically tight album. The musical tranks linked by accoustic piano intermissions of spoken words in different languages shouting out Bobby Digital as the worldwide superhero he is. As I mentioned above I was never crazy about the lead single "B.O.B.B.Y.", but from the second song and up to the last song on the thematic closer "Domestic Violence" "In Stereo" plays out like a modern day masterpiece. Similiar to the earlier albums mentioned above, the LP is filled with Wu-Tang Clan members (most generals make an apperance in one way or another - save for Raekwon) and like on the older albums some of the best tracks are the posse cuts and cuts with guests. Perhaps because RZA, though a good rhyme spitter, he's always best when surrounded by emcees of equally high caliber ("N.Y.C. Everything" with Method Man; the Inspectah Deck produced "Kiss Of A Black Widow" with ODB; the posse cuts "Holocaust", "Terrorist" and "Bobby Did It"). It also stands out as it is the first true Clan solo that heavily features what RZA in a The Source article in late '99 called his "C-artists" (Killarmy, Black Knights, North Star, Tekitha, Ms. Roxy, etc.). As such it was the first album that introduced the somewhat legendary Holocaust on a track where he attacked the song so viciously that he got the track (which was originally titled "Silkworm") named after him. Those two posse cuts with Ghost are also among the first two tracks to feature the style that Ghost would attract the whole world to with his "Supreme Clientele" style some 18 months later.
When discussing "In Stereo" as a classic it is important to note that the album features 21 tracks, with the information that the four final tracks are bonus RZA tracks (as in not made in Bobby Digital persona). As such the liner notes makes it clear that "Bobby Digital in Stereo" is finished when track #17 fades out - the excellent artistic and violent expression that is "Domestic Violence". Therefore it should be noted that when I am discussing "In Stereo" as a personal classic and a profound and cohessive musical statement on par with the first round of Wu-Tang solos, those sentiments are based on the front-to-back experience of listening to tracks 1 to 17. While a couple of the bonus tracks does have some merit (especially "Lab Drunk") it makes the album sound dragged out and the two weakest songs on the entire disc finish things off diminishes the artistic statement of the preceding cuts. To end the album on the one-two punch that is "My Lovin' is Digi" and "Domestic Violence" is nothing short of genius - the first one being a majestic string filled affair with beautiful, seductive female vocals and Bobby Digital declaring his love for women and love in general. On the other hand, "Domestic Violence" is the gritty backside of that same coin - where Bobby describes a fallen relationship in the harshest terms possible over a stripped down but gut punchingly hard beat. When the song fades out after over 5 minutes we've been treated to misogynistic rhymes and hateful attack on the former partners as well as a chaotic outro with U-God on the phone interrupting the fighting couple in a most cinematic way. When the song finally ends the sudden sound of silence is almost a relief, and like the moments after you've seen a great movie that had a profound impact on you, you'll sit there reflecting on Bobby Digital and his weird, intense world of hip-hop, drugs, women and violence.
Lastly, on an interesting side note, followers of this blog and Wu-Tang in general know that many artists releases different versions of albums for the Japanese market every now and then. Much like the Canadian release of "Supreme Clientele", the Japan release of "In Stereo" features a different tracklist which I have a hard time reconciling with the well-thought out concepts of the orignal album (or maybe the Japanese tracklist was the original before RZA realized there were more to be done - similiar to another pefectionist who kept shaping his work even after their original releases - Stanley Kubrick). The Japanese version loses all the skits and intros as well as the excellent "Handwriting On The Wall" featuring Ras Kass and RZA which uses the same drum-less "beat" as those interludes. Another song that doens't make the final cut is one of my favorites, the triumphant "My Lovin' is A Digi" which makes "Domestc Violence" so much more powerful. Instead the Japanese got the four RZA bonus tracks spread out across the album (yet the back cover still says that it DOES feature four bonus RZA tracks). But what makes the album really inteeresting for westerners despite being far from as good or cohessive - is the inclusion of the 11 minutes self-produced freestyle "Do You Hear The Bells" and the extended version of "Terrorist" with addiitional verses by Holocaust, Dom Pachino and Killa Sin. On the subject of "Terrorist" you have to admire how Bobby borrowed the bassline of "Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nuthin' Ta Fuck With" and incorporated it in to the flavor of the digitized orchestra. "Do You Hear The Bells" appeared on a free "N.Y.C. Everything" cardboard single with Stress Magazie that my homie Big Rob owned, so I got a high quality FLAC file here of that single for your enjoyment (it's quite large considering one of the songs is an 11 minutes/"freestyle"). And if you're intersted you can check out the original"Bobby Digtai In Stereo" (Japan) tracklist, rip the songs and put them in the proper sequence and see what you think. To my ears the US/European versions are far superior. 01. "B.O.B.B.Y." 02. "Unspoken Word" 03. "Airwaves" 04. "Love Jones" 05. "N.Y.C. Everything" 06. "Mantis" 07. "Holocaust" (Silkworm)" 08. "Terrorist" 09 "Bobby Did It ("Spanish Fly) 10. "Kiss OF A Blak Widow" 11. "Do You Hear The Bells" (9 Minute Freestyle) 12. "Project Talk" 13. "Lab Drunk" 14. "Fuck What You Think" 15. "Daily Routine" 16. "Donestic Violence"
"N.Y.C. EVERYGHING" / "DO YOU HEAR THE BELLS" (CDS) [FLAC]
As one half of the duo Homeless Derelix, West Coast producer Architect has been making underground heads nod to his personal vision of Hip Hop production since the early 1990s, as well as helping to define the sound of indie label 75 Ark. His new release is called "Butter Soul" and is bound to satisy both old followers and new listeners alike. Entirely instrumental (as in devoid of any emcees or singers though it does features vocal samples) Architect crafts what to my ears sounds like a wild sonic Sci Fi flick through samples, beats and loops. Blazing trumpets, suspenseful strings, dreamy Rhodes, booming basslines, power house drums and movie samples are all part of a rather intense menu that's a worthy descendent of the idea of the beat tape as album. Rarely letting a particular beat play for more than one minute "Butter Soul" is sprawling with musical ideas that puts the aforementioned sonic world through constant transformation. Despite the huge number of different sounds, instruments and sampled genres it however never feels unfocused as the producer undoubtedly got a great ear and attacks the suite with a true DJ:s attentiveness to mixing and blending.
"Butter Soul" is the latest release on Drasar Monumental's Vendetta Vinyl, which is more and more establishing a signature sound, and they have once again chosen to encode all of the music into only two 15 minutes tracks for the digital versions. It's a good choice as this is something you should experience in full, from front to back and perhaps back again. One area where I find too many instrumental Hip Hop album fail in, and where Dilla's "Donuts" was one of the most important projects in changing the course, is the length of beats. Many producers let tracks that hold the listeners attention for a minute and some change without an emcee instead play out for three minutes or more. The tracks within here are not fully formed songs in and of themeselves but rather parts of a larger whole that together creates a complete composition - a composition that is defined as butter soul. Highly recommended!
You can purchase Architect's "Butter Soul" @ Vendetta Vinyl now. Check out the sampler below...
