Posted on 10/17/2008
General Motors stock is down 75% on the year. Now, I hate as much as anyone to hear people pin all of society’s problems on rap music, but it’s time to take responsibility here: I for one blame Michigan’s downright excessive supply of hip-hop talent. Maybe if cats like 14KT designed beautiful innovations for GMC instead of on the MPC, the prognosis would look a little more promising for the motor city. The Golden Hour (Soundtrack) , which probably comes standard in the deck of all ‘09 Toyotas, is a prime example of hip hop’s crippling monopoly on young talent in Michigan. Stacked end to end with lush, engulfing soundscapes, this is the sort of striking project that can singlehandedly create an artist’s following.

At first this project sounded a bit derivative, the influence of his Michigan contemporaries having left clear fingerprints on 14KT’s style of production. However, after absorbing a few of these beautiful tracks and witnessing KT’s ability to evoke such clear emotion with a damn drum machine, it’s impossible not to recognize his creative originality. Besides, on the impressive “Without Dilla,” this Ypsilanti native proves that if he was just trying to sound like his influences, he literally could have. Even more impressive, 14KT pulls off a feat few producers can manage: The Golden Hour is a functional beat tape, (an advertisement to all emcees in earshot,) yet it still entertains in the vein of a standalone instrumental album. Infrequent, but creative, the album’s interludes keep The Hour moving right along despite the presence of only one actual vocal performance. Oh, and do I even need to mention that on top of all that it’s essentially a concept album?

In emergency medicine, ‘the golden hour’ describes the crucial sixty minute window following a major multi-system trauma that a patient has to receive critical surgical intervention. With beats this heavenly, the prognosis doesn’t look good.

- M. Steve Hammer