Posted on 08/19/2009
If Themselves isn’t your cup of tea then you must not like the taste of coffee. Thankfully, Doseone and Jel have never concerned themselves with easy listening, nor with your taste in morning beverage. With a decade’s worth of verbal calisthenics that evoke Sticky Fingaz on acid and MPC chops more thunderous than a Thai monsoon, the two Anticon torchbearers have unapologetically stomped a mudhole in the ass of independent hip-hop. While it might be oxymoronic to call any Themselves release a more “linear” effort than another, CrownsDown does sound a bit more focused and more ravenous than 1999’s Them or 2002’s The No Music. If distance makes the heart grow fonder, than the past seven years of pursuing Subtle endeavors has reinvigorated Themselves’ love jones for rap. So yeah, welcome back.

“Back II Burn” sets the mood like an ox out the cage with a-versatile-as-ever Dose getting grimy in double time and vocoder influenced cadences, proclaiming; “This ain’t no aftermath from a crash, ask Dax, motherfucker guess who’s back?,”over a rolling Jel track that flexes some good old ominous distortion. Dose keeps his game tight throughout on standouts like “Roman Is As Roman Does,” and “Oversleeping,” again opting for a slightly more straightforward approach to the mic, less sing-songy, spoken-wordish or overtly nasal than on records past. But dude hasn’t lost his sweet side. “Daxstrong” is a heartfelt ode to Dose and Jel’s Subtle bandmate, Dax Pierson, who became paralyzed from the neck down after the band’s tour van rolled on black ice in Idaho in 2005. Within Dose’s recounting of the event arise the complexities of issues such as humanity and god(lessness), so anyone who’s quick to dismiss Themselves as just some weirdos making art for art’s sake can save that noise.

On the ode tip, “Skinning The Drum” is Dose’s shout to his boy Jel, in my mind, a certified MPC chief since Themselves’ incarnation and his earlier work on the Deep Puddle Dynamics project and Atmosphere’s Lucy Ford. His instrumental opus, Greenball, from 2001, is still a mainstay in my headphones and a timeless backdrop for ciphers. CrownsDown puts Jel right back on the pedestal and he simply tears shit up on “Skinning The Drum,” a fitting homage to those that make music with their hands. And if hearing dude via record doesn’t convince you, either go see your pharmacist or check him live if given the chance. As a two-man band, Doseone and Jel pack their records with the energy and explosiveness of a mouthful of Pop Rocks and cola. CrownsDown is an accomplished cornerstone for Anticon’s tenth year and a welcome pallet cleanser to wash away all that processed nonsense.

-Jeff Artist