Underground Rap Strikes Back Part 1
by Elan “wouldn’t it be great if I had a name to go between these quotation marks” Eichler
Last year I could have sworn that Internet rap had eclipsed underground/independent or whatever you want it call it (it’s all hip-hop) but on a free music listening spree I discovered that some of my favorite artists were back with respectable efforts to reclaim the respect they deserve. First of all, supreme lyricist and Blackalicious’ MC, Gift of Gab just released the synth driven space odyssey Escape 2 Mars. The album is no Blazing Arrow but it’s quality and enjoyable. Gab still delivers consistently jaw-dropping rhymes and thought provoking concepts like Santa Clause (their excellence in delivery is similar, not rhymes), except Gab comes to my house. Del The Funky Homosapien, who just made a nice little album with long-time veteran and avid PCP proponent Tame One (from the Weatherman Crew and the Artifacts), and hip-hop’s only black albino, Brother Ali, make guest appearances on the track “Dreamin’”.
If any rapper is an alien, it is Del. Also, after he made Both Sides of the Brain and Deltron 3030, the effort in his lyrics seemed to have gone down, except he still is damn cool, strange, and has seemingly endless ways to tell you he is exceptional and that wack rappers are fucking wack ass rappers who should always be prepared for verbal decimation at the hands of the funky one. His half of the words on the Tame-One collaboration (Tame-One barely rhymes, he speaks a lot, it just doesn’t rhyme that much and falls off beat, but that’s just his style) are far superior to his recent free online download albums. I don’t really like his new self-proclaimed nickname Diesel, because Del is the Funk Man, not the truck shaped Nebraskan that I picture when I think of Diesel, like a mix of Heavy D, Bone Crusher, a professional wrestler, and a semi-truck.
Mr. Lif, the political dissenting, bifocal wearing, and dread rocking MC with an honorary MD from Elan University (look it up it’s a real college, but they misspell it on their website, e-l-o-n, ridiculous) for his medical dictionary wordplay slaughtering, has a new album out, I Heard it Today and you should to. On I Heard it Today, Lif, born Jeffery Haynes out of Boston Mass., speaks the every day struggle of men and women under the Bush Regime and voices the unspoken fear that Obama won’t improve life for the marginalized. This isn’t the self-obsessed, braggadocio that too many MCs fall back on. Lif gives us a glimpse at hip-hop music as an independent voice in the sphere of tired talking heads. He’s capable of inspiring social change combined with body moving music, condensed into 40 minutes of unadulterated and corporation-free education.
New Albums I’ve listened to:
Chali 2na Fish Outta Water (that signature voice and style are back, and even without the rest of J5 and Cut Chemist or DJ Numark production, he still manages to pull off a solid album with some a few hits, like “Graff Time,” an ode to his hip-hop beginnings as a tagger and “When Will I See You Again” with Elzhi of Slum Village)
Doom (songs he’s featured on and rappers on his beats, Doom pulling his usual, hustling)
Edan Echo Party (one 30 minute track of strange electronic mixed with old school hip-hop samples)
Eydea and Abilities (uhhh too much change, can’t take it, the lyrical skill of Eyedea is forsaken for weird guitar heavy “beats”, sort of scream/singing choruses and problems most can relate to but I’d much rather listen to abstract thoughts from the mind than something out of a diary.
Felt 3- Slug and Murs return with a third installment, this time with Aesop Rock providing production that doesn’t fit especially with Murs’ straightforwardness.
Master Ace and Edo G A & E (ill combo of 2 vets who deserve a million dollars for an eventually cushy retirement)
KRS-One and Buckshot (why is Slug from Atmosphere featured on a song?)
Raekwon Only Built For Cuban Linx 2
Rakim- Just found out his new album is out, 4 days new, or is that old? I want the old Rakim, the new Rakim is different.
Talk is going on about this Slaughterhouse crew but I haven’t gotten around to them yet, they have some dude named Joel Ortiz or something and I just fucking hate that name, I don’t even know what Joel Ortiz -- wait it can’t be Joel, probably is Joe. Joel is one of those names that can never come across as hard, no matter how many bodies a Joel claims he massacred, still is a Joel. The last name too pisses me off for no good reason, just does. Orrrrrtteeeaaassseee. Hate it.
Alright it is 2 in the morning and I am going to Escape 2 Sleep.
Revision: The following day I was revising this mess and I gave Slaughterhouse a chance and I was surprised. I still hate Joel’s name and some styles these dudes employ are just lazy, like: My ultrasounds show me holdin a microphone/That's on my momma, I was born with a microphone. They do have some funny/disgusting punch lines (like one about how when you’re bitch burps you smell my balls in the air, umm, their words not mine) and it’s high quality studio produced so like what they’re saying or not, some of the time it just sounds good. The only Joel I want to hear rhyme is Pryzbilla, as long as he doesn’t call himself the Vanilla Gorilla.
ps. I was listening to the Native American radio show on KBOO and they called our fast approaching day of family gatherings and traditions that are probably based on spending money, like Christmas or valentine’s day, and they referred to it as the so-called day of thanksgiving. Thanksgiving should be a day of Native Americans reclining while we beg for their forgiveness and admit that they are the only true Americans.