January 21, 2008

Afu-Ra - Body Of The Life Force (October 10, 2000)


Afu-Ra, born with the terribly ordinary name of Aaron Phillip, is a young New York rapper best known for his interests in martial arts, chess, and his rhyme affiliation with the Gangstarr Foundation, specifically with fellow mental staminalist Jeru the Damaja. In fact, Afu made his (I suppose you could call it) mainstream debut on Jeru's classic first album The Sun Rises In The East, and became best known as "the guy that sounds like a younger version of Jeru".

Originally signed to Gee Street records, which was also the home to seminal hip hop favorites Gravediggaz and, um, Stereo MC's ("Connected" is still a good song, for those keeping count), Afu-Ra found his home at indie graveyard Koch Records, the label where artists go when they want the artistic freedom to release whatever they want without the cumbersome desire to actually sell fucking records, so it should make sense when I tell you that Afu-Ra sold seventy billion copies of his debut, Body Of The Life Force. What do you mean, that last sentence didn't make sense?

Body Of The Life Force is known today as an underground classic, with its intelligent rhymes, mostly revolving around how much better and smarter Afu-Ra is when compared to you, and the beats, provided by DJ Premier and other beatmakers handpicked by Primo himself. In fact, Primo's fingerprints are all over this debut, and when you remember that Primo produced Jeru's first two albums from start to finish, it'll cause your heart to die just a tiny bit. Jeru the Damaja also doesn't make anything even remotely resembling a guest appearance on Body Of The Life Force, but that probably has less to do with any fallout with his protege and everything to do with his "I Hate Primo" campaign and fan club that he was hell-bent on running at the time.

Whatever.

1. INTRO [THE BODY OF THE LIFE FORCE] (FEAT ASUN THE BLACK SUN)
Spoken word rap album intros...can't trust it!

2. SOUL ASSASSINATION
A very bland DJ Muggs offering, on which he tries out his worst DJ Premier impersonation, but Afu comes out the gate as a seemingly fully-realized emcee, which is rare in this business.

3. DEFEAT
The first of five DJ Premier beats fails to impress.

4. BIG ACTS, LITTLE ACTS (FEAT GZA/GENIUS)
As a Wu-Tang stan, you can imagine that this was the first song I skipped to after ripping the plastic off. Not a bad song at all, although I prefer the DJ Premier remix to this True Master instrumental on general principle alone.

5. QUOTATIONS
Still don't like acapella interludes. Next!

6. D&D SOUNDCLASH (FEAT COCOA BROVAZ & JAHDAN)
A surprisingly great collaborative effort between the Boot Camp Clik and whatever the hell Primo's crew calls themselves. (It's not still the Gangstarr Foundation, is it?) The beat itself is good enough to make you wonder why radio doesn't play more good shit like this.

7. MIC STANCE
While this song is better than "Defeat", Primo's stabs into the higher register will hurt your ears after a brief listen.

8. CALIENTE (FEAT RASHEEDAH)
I can't imagine either Gee Street or Koch Records really looking for that hit radio single to push Body Of The Life Force, so the inclusion of this hot garbage puzzles me to this day. Afu, what the fuck?

9. ALL THAT (FEAT HANNIBAL STAX & KRUMBSNATCHA)
For a posse cut, pretty damn boring. Only Krumbsnatcha, who plays a successful rapper only in his mind's eye, comes off as if he's actively trying to earn his guest spot fee, which I'm sure was a couple of Big Macs, a dime bag, and a 24-ounce Diet Pepsi, lukewarm.

10. HEADQCUARTERZ (SKIT) (FEAT HEADQCUARTERZ)
This short interlude punctuated by the late guest rapper marks the halfway point of the listening experience.

11. SELF MASTERY
Over some incredibly subdued Primo production, Afu-Ra, sounding less low-key and more like he's about to have a narcoleptic fit, rips shit up.

12. VISIONS
An instrumental break. I just can't get enough of them, probably because these so-called "musicians" can't be bothered to showcase actual fucking music on their albums.

13. MORTAL KOMBAT (FEAT MASTA KILLA)
You can imagine that this was the second song I skipped to. I actually prefer this beat to the song featuring Gary Grice. In his own way, Masta Killa walks away with the song, mainly because he's not the most obvious Wu artist to call upon if you're in need of a guest spot. (Side note: Masta Killa also ripped shit up on his guest spot on Public Enemy's "Resurrection", off of the He Got Game soundtrack. Anyone remember that song?)

14. WARFARE (FEAT M.O.P.)
This isn't much of a beat for M.O.P. to provide their trademarked shouting over. As such, not great.

15. EQUALITY (FEAT KY-MANI MARLEY)
Meh.

16. MONOTONY
It would be that Primo's final contribution is the one that I like the most. Damn him!

17. BRING IT RIGHT
The song is pretty fucking weak. The Big L tribute, tacked on at the end, handles itself a bit better.

18. WHIRLWIND THRU CITIES
The first single, and the barometer for Jeru the Damaja fans who were expecting more of the same from his protege. This track is pleasant enough, and still holds its own today.

FINAL THOUGHTS: Body Of The Life Force is nowhere near the level of Jeru's The Sun Rises In The East; hell, it's not even close to his inferior-yet-still-banging follow-up Wrath Of The Math. It is, however, entertaining; the beats are all pretty good, unless I made it a point to point out the monotony in the above review (oddly, "Monotony" has one of the best beats here), and the guests are all bland enough as to not overshadow the main attraction. This album is damn near eight years old as of this writing, so I'm not going to lie: a lot of the final product sounds incredibly dated, and Afu's voice may grate on your nerves after a while. You should just accept this for what it is: an entertaining CD that isn't going to change your life anytime soon.

BUY OR BURN? I recommend a purchase, especially since you could probably find it for three dollars. You could do a lot worse. If given a choice, though, you should veer towards Jeru's first two discs instead. This, of course, is assuming that the choice is between Body Of The Life Force and Jeru's two albums; if you have the choice, you should definitely choose Afu-Ra and not that Young Jeezy disc you know you've had your eye on.

BEST TRACKS: ""D&D Soundclash"; "Monotony"; "Whirlwind Thru Cities"; "Mortal Kombat"

B-SIDE TO DOWNLOAD: "Trilogy of Terror", featuring Guru and Hannibal Stax. Released as the B-side of "Whirlwind Thru Cities", this non-album track (also featured on Gee Street's compilation The Year Of The Backslap, which also featured some random Rza and Tragedy Khadafi tracks) is well worth the effort it'll take you to hunt it down, which is to say, you'll find it in two seconds. Starting...........now.

-Max

12 comments:

  1. C'mon, "Defeat" is such a great beat. Those horns!
    If you listen to Afu for the course of an entire album, you'll realize he's saying absolutely nothing. But it doesn't really matter because the beats are pretty great.

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  2. Yup, yup... A great album.

    Although I agree: Of all the Foundation albums, I'd go with Jeru's Sun Rises record any day of the week.

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  3. "D&D Soundclash" should be played on the radio - That's my jam!

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  4. Come on...

    Defeat fail to impress?

    Equality is "meh"?

    It almost seems like you're biased against him... those tracks are genius...

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  5. what is wrong with you? god u dont know how to enjoy a hip hop track

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  6. I agree that usually intros are skippable but this one rocks! The words of Afu are strong and even though they won't give you wisdom, they give you a glimpse of it. Defeat is actually quite impressive and one of the best tracks on one of the best hip hop albums. Big acts little acts ....not a bad song at all???? This is a great collaboration to me, Afu still sounds good but GZA is incomparable! Equality .. this track is a masterpiece and saying "meh" might have offended hip hop itself. I pledge allegiance to the hip hop!

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  7. AnonymousJuly 22, 2009

    this is one of the weakest reviews i've read

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  8. afu has a great style of emceeing that this album here is recommended for all heads who are into more underground shit than mainstream shit

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  9. Album ain't no underground classic, it's shit.

    Just forget for a moment that it came out in the 90s (:-O) and listen to it again.

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  10. this was one of the pointless reviews i have ever read

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  11. Afu kind of got moving at the end of the whole "African Americans trying to look Asian" craze - even though it's been genetically proven that Caucasians and Africans are more closely related, ethnicity-wise (apparently the proto-Asians left Africa thousands of years before anyone moved to Europe or the Middle East). Which is ignored by Afu and RZA - and white supremacists.

    The album? Aside the fact that Afu's fans tend to polish his nuts with their eyelashes (see some of the above comments), this album is pretty good. Not on Jeru's level.... But really, few are.

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  12. Your review is wack bro, I'm sorry. You come off as mad cynical, the first sentence says it all. Premier's beats bang, I don't know how you can front so hard on "Defeat" and "Mic Stance".... it doesn't seem like you're much of a hip hop head to be honest

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