Feb 04, 2012
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Reviews

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Jesse Futerman


Super Basement
Jus Like Music
90

<i>Super Basement</i> by Jesse Futerman. Officially, it blends ‘elements of soul and hip hop while retaining a jazz backbone.’ But to break it down a touch more prosaically, it’s simply a beautiful record, a breath of fresh air that’ll make your world a better place for its all too brief twenty minute running time.

<i>Super Basement</i> harks back to another era, a more innocent time around the turn of the millennium. The era of the digger, when labels like Mo’Wax, Grand Central and Quannum ruled the waves and the likes of Aim, Shadow, The Avalanches et al were out mining the world for the samples that would make them into legends. Of course, the quest for the perfect beat is still going on today, but Jesse Futerman is the first person I’ve heard in a long while who’s captured the excitement (and quality) of those days gone by.

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Gabriel Teodros


Colored People's Time Machine
Fresh Chopped Beats/MADK Productions
86

It’s been exactly five years since the Pacific Northwest’s most endearing rapper, Gabriel Teodros, last released a full length project. That album, Lovework, managed to impress even the most stoic of music critics like Robert Christgau who praised Teodros in Rolling Stone for his “brains, musicality and a refreshing attitude.” Those are the laurels that Teodros has rested upon over the years, parlaying his skills and East African heritage into a series of performances throughout Ethiopia, while rocking shows stateside with the likes of K’naan and generally captivating audiences who appreciate left-leaning hip-hop when it’s urban, honest and sincere.

With his newest project, Colored People’s Time Machine, Teodros takes his heart-heavy brand of hip-hop several steps further without confining himself to the typical “conscious rapper” stereotypes. The album zooms straight out of the gate with the lead-off track, “Blossoms of Fire,” which also happens to be the lead single. Considering the five-year gap between LPs, it feels important that Teodros shows his growth here. The chorus on “Blossoms of Fire” exclaims “I let go and let love,” which could easily be the theme of the full album. “Sangre Nueva” which features Mexico City’s Bocafloja on vocals is one of the strongest cuts, Boca’s all Spanish verse being one of the fiercest on the record.

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Doomtree


No Kings
Doomtree Records
85

On “Bangarang,” from Minneapolis based hip-hop collective Doomtree’s new album, No Kings, the hook says,  “Doomtree bangarang.  All these rappers sound the same.  Beats sound the same.  Raps sound the same. Wings fan the flame, teeth with the fangs.  10 years in our lame Doomtree Bangarang.”

 Listening to the new album, that idea resonates throughout the project.  If you are the hip-hop music listener who just listens to hip-hop for the sampled head nodding and sometimes heavily produced music—Doomtree’s new album honestly isn’t for you.

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The Black Opera


EnterMission
A-Side Worldwide
85

The Black Opera’s sophomore project, EnterMission, opens with a minimal intro in the form of “EnterMission Endtro.”  The intro includes opera vocals, as well as a man saying, “I feel like I’ve already heard this.  It’s just right now, no one’s doing it.” This statement definitely correlates with the mystery that is The Black Opera.

No one knows exactly who The Black Opera is—they wear masks in video demonstrations and glorify their Twitter followers, however, no one knows exactly who these people are.  Followers of the movement that The Black Opera have created do know that The Black Opera is a counter-cultural musical idea/organization designed for national and international impact.  The collective is a hub of creative individuals ranging from emcees and producers to actors who represent revolutionary thought in action, executed by a harmonic but forceful orchestral and theatrical presentation.

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Benny Sings


Art
Fat Beats and Dox Records
80

Pardon the obvious, but…Benny can sing, and he does it well. From start to finish, Art–the most recent album from the Netherlands native–takes its listener on a journey through the depths of the human heart. The best part about listening? I’m not sure if I’m sipping lemonade on a checkered picnic cloth or making love in a spaceship that’s perusing the outer galaxies.

Benny sings out to his listener, connecting smooth phrases of love lost and found that leave any girl swooning with the possibility that Benny did, in fact, release this album specifically for her. Lyrics like “All we see is each other… All we see is love” and “All we do for love, is it worth it? Can we prove its existence?” are just two that had me convinced.

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Statik Selektah


Population Control
Showoff Records/Duck Down Music
80

With a discography that spans five solo albums and seven collaborative projects, producer Statik Selektah has made his name synonymous with consistency and relevance.  His latest project, Population Control is no exception.

With this project more than any other, it seems almost as if Selektah was attempting to connect to a younger demographic with features from Mac Miller (“Groupie Love”), Dom Kennedy (“Smoke On”), Chuuwee (“Half-Moon Part”) and XV (“Sam Jack”).  The LP is on the longer side with 20-tracks, including several filler tracks.  Around the middle of the album, listeners are introduced to a lot of songs that should have been kept off the tracklist because they essentially make no positive impact on the way the album sounds ( “Groupie Love,” “Let’s Build,” and “They Don’t Know,” just to name a few).  In addition to filler tracks, there seem to be a lot of features with artists who have no chemistry with one other. Instead of just adding people on to the track because it looks good on paper, it would’ve been better for the listener to hear artists on the song that really would vibe nice to the production.

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yU


The Earn
Mello Music Group
93

2011 was an especially effective year for independent record label Mello Music Group. With a heavy emphasis on quality and standards, the label kept Hip-Hop fans well-stocked with releases all year long. With a stacked comprising acts like Oddisee, Boog Brown, Has-Lo and the powerhouse D.C. trio of Diamond District (consisting of yU and Uptown XO), you might think that yU’s last quarter drop would render his project underexposed. However, the other MMG may have saved their best for last with the December release of yU’s superb second solo album The EARN.

The album opens with “Flipping Channels/theEARNtro”, featuring production on the first portion from yU’s band mate Slimkat78 of The 78ers, and DJ Roddy Rod on the other half. While the collage of the first half catches your interest, yU leaps out the gate with a blistering verse on the second half. The track is followed by the 00Genesis-produced “First” which finds yU expressing some of his inaugural steps of his career and life. While not as arresting as the intro, yU comfortably glides over the breezy production.

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Gangrene


Vodka & Ayahuasca
Decon
88

Hard as a crack rock, or a vodka bottle (Ayahuasca grows on vines but pushes wigs back just the same). 2011 rained high-profile tag-team records – see The Throne, Bad Meets Evil.  But somewhere in the mud puddles, Oh No and The Alchemist decided to re-link and construct a joint that’s far more consistent than those of their major label bros. Engineered around the mechanics that made last year’s Greneberg EP (w/ Roc Marciano) so thorough, Vodka & Ayahuasca is a salute to no-bullshit hip-hop done right.

If Gangrene’s Gutter Water felt decidedly weird, somewhat sparse and random, then V & A is a welcome progression towards more cohesive song and album construction.  Sure, the first LP was steady blunted–type heady in its own right–but the tracks weren’t as well developed from a production standpoint, nor were they infused with lyricism so potent.  Take “Top Instructors,” the best track off V & A: the beat bounces like an East Coast indie Al might have blessed in ’98. The keys sample and effects are ominous but energetic enough not to add any dead weight, while the flows keep pace like Marion Jones – proof that you can be lit and still on some emcee shit.

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Eligh and Amp Live


Therapy At 3
Live Up Records
86

California and hip-hop music go together like Baseball and America.  An odd comparison maybe, but think about it. As a region, California has produced some of the most innovative and creative artists of what Jeff Chang calls (in his book, Can’t Stop Won’t Stop) “The Hip-Hop Generation.”  With acts like NWA, Tupac, and Snoop Dogg, not to mention the new artists coming out of the region like Kendrick Lamar and Thurzday, this fact has been well-established. By itself, the Bay Area has produced some of the most iconic acts in hip-hop: E-40, Too $hort, Souls of Mischief, The Hieroglyphics, The Living Legends and Zion I.  Technically, The Living Legends are pan-Cali artists–the product of both Oakland and South Central–and from that group emerged emcee Eligh, while from Zion I we get producer Amp Live, who have combined their years in the game with their new collaborative album, Therapy at 3.

The album sounds different than what we have heard from them individually though there are some elements on tracks like “Metronome,” which will instantly put listeners into the mindset of Zion I’s Mind Over Matter. Other reassuringly familiar aspects of the album include Eligh’s spitfire rhyme style. Amp Life’s production style, has expanded a little with this project and the mesh of the two makes for a quality collaboration that fans would have expected, judging from countless Zion I and Eligh collaborations, as well as the production that Amp Live has done for Eligh when he was doing music with The Grouch.

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Matthew Dear


Headcage EP
Ghostly
85

In 2010, Matthew Dear released his last project, Black City. The project was a new direction for the artist whose music was typically more on the good-time, party vibe.  The album was in contrast to his previous work–and as the title suggests, darker. Now, Dear has released his four-track EP, Headcage, which picks up where Black City left off.

Technically, this record should not make any sense. The music has no logical flow and nothing sounds similar to anything else. But the blend of sounds that Dear has used–from hip-hop samples to multicultural sounds to mellow vibes–somehow work out really well together, showing exactly how diverse he is as an artist.

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Allen Stone


Allen Stone
N/A
83

As oxymoronic as the phrase “digital soul” would appear to be, the internet era of music distribution has given rise to a new wave of soul revivalists from all over the globe. The latest retro-soul man to get the blogosphere buzzing is Chewelah, WA’s Allen Stone, whose self-titled sophomore release combines robust instrumentation and memorable melodies to make its largely derivative track list feel relatively fresh and organic.

At his best, Stone shines with an easy comfort, boyishly exuberant voice, and slightly off kilter song writing style that separates him from many of his peers who stick slavishly to the Smokey or Stevie schools song craft. “Sleep” juxtaposes a dirty funk bassline and church-style handclaps against folk-ish lyricism, evoking images of the open landscapes and wild animals of his Northwestern stomping grounds. The slow burner, “Wind” adapts the same template, with airy horns opening up the thick soul groove and accentuating Allen’s nature-based metaphors.

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Eric Bobo and Latin Bitman


Welcome To The Ritmo Machine
Nacional
79

At no other time in history have musical genres been so skewed. Just a cursory listen to FM radio could confirm such an opinion, as mainstream R&B feels more like pop music in disguise. And while hip-hop suffers through the same pop merger, its explicitness keeps the music more grounded than other artistic works. Sure, certain MCs have a flair for the gloss, but there’s still a restless underground looking for new ways to manipulate sound.

Welcome To The Ritmo Machine, the collaborative album by Cypress Hill percussionist Eric Bobo and DJ Latin Bitman, lies somewhere in-between. It stands out as an ambitious recording of breezy Caribbean rhythms and classic hip-hop soul, held together by recognizable vocal samples and swift record scratches. But while this album isn’t quite a knockout, it packs just enough thump to sustain an energetic mood. The combination of hip-hop, Afrobeat, and Latin percussion never fails, even if some of the themes are somewhat repetitive.

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