In my ears, Crooked I has always been one of the very most monstrous newcomers, skill-wise… but upon listening through Young Boss Vol 2 I see a writer rising up from between the rhymes, an author showing extreme concern for the construction of a line, details to rhyme patterns, cadences, rhythms, double meanings. Not to put him on a level with a Rakim, or even an Eminem – but perhaps he will be there one day. Until then he will have time to develop a unique voice, which seems to be lacking at times. His attitude can be a bit too much, exagerated, simple minded. And the beats, well, they kick, bang, thump and all that, but with few variations. It’s a mixtape, though, not an album, and how can I can complain when he is working on a project with these people?
(The fact that he is recording with Ill Bill is beautiful… like
seeing Cormega and Immortal Technique on stage together… who finally has a new album coming out, by the way.
Revolutionary Vol. 2 was partly monumental, and
The 3rd World seems to be a good continuation, just as angry and concentrated. Go to
his Myspace and listen to him share the mic with Ras Kass, Pharoahe Monch, Chino XL, Crooked I … and listen to
Bootcamp Click’s Military Mind. He will also be on
Ill Bill’s The Hour Of Reprisal. Fucking Christmas Day. Somewhere here lays the seeds to the revival of the rap genre, in the battle field where the seven-headed hydra of industry funk will be slayed, where veterans and up-and-comers connect, and
Ice-T leads the troops).
Normally we only read blogs looking for the few valuable Zshare-links, but the old favourite
Cocaine Blunts, and the newly added
Byron Crawford – The Mindset Of A Champion, are also worth their weight in writing. Noz at
Cocaine Blunts keeps a low profile, but it is hard to miss his love and dedication for obscure rap history and its present mutations (and for the art of putting a sentence together, something normally missing ’round rap blogs). Crawford does not write on the low, he pumps it out over the top, with fuses blowing, and the HATE-O-METER in the red, in traditional, american alcoholic, self-obsessed, rhinocerous-like,
HST-style.
Spliff Huxtable is a good source for instrumentals, both classic and fresh for the day. And because of this post, among others, you will find Ripped Open as one of the permanent links on the right, next to the regular, mumbling, stuttering, fleeing, unevenly updated flow of posts.
In my ears, Crooked I has always been one of the very most monstrous newcomers, skill-wise… but upon listening through Young Boss Vol 2 I see a writer rising up from between the rhymes, an author showing extreme concern for the construction of a line, details to rhyme patterns, cadences, rhythms, double meanings. Not to put him on a level with a Rakim, or even an Eminem – but perhaps he will be there one day. Until then he will have time to develop a unique voice, which seems to be lacking at times. His attitude can be a bit too much, exagerated, simple minded. And the beats, well, they kick, bang, thump and all that, but with few variations. It’s a mixtape, though, not an album, and how can I can complain when he is working on a project with these people?