Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique (July 25, 1989)

On this, the final day of the stunt month, I've decided to abandon my own rules and write about the second album from the Beastie Boys, the monumental Paul's Boutique.  A lot of you two have been waiting around for this write-up ever since Licensed To Ill hit the site.  Why, you could even go so far as to say that this entire stunt month was manufactured as an excuse for me to finally get around to writing about the fucking album. Now if only I would do the same for some of the other artists who have been ignored on this blog, right?

Anyway, Paul's Boutique.  After the success of their debut (rap) album Licensed To Ill, MCA, Ad Rock, and Mike D. grew restless in their Def Jam Records label home, as Rick Rubin and Russell Simmons were trying to force them to record a quickie Licensed To Ill 2 follow-up, which the Beasties had zero interest in doing.  Instead, they found a way out of their record deal, signing up instead with Capitol Records (the home of Miilkbone), who promised them endless creative freedom as long as they actually managed to move units.  In response, the Beastie Boys immediately moved out West and started doing as many drugs as humanly possible.  (They were obviously aware that they pissed off their former Def Jam gods, who immediately sicced their other (mostly) white rap group 3rd Bass on them; however, I believe they were too stoned to care all that much at the time.)

Paul's Boutique grew out of a chance meeting with production team The Dust Brothers, named as such not because of how untidy they kept their studio.  The team had produced several instrumentals that they intended to morph into club-ready dance tracks, but the Beasties convinced them to give up the beats (and help create a few more) in favor of their new album.  Aside from their rampant drug abuse, the Dust Brothers were also known at the time for their method of using eighty thousand motherfucking samples in their songs, stitching everything together to create Frankentracks that actually sounded like original compositions.  (Part of the reason why it took me so long to get to this write-up is because of my delusional attempt to piece this review together out of sentences taken from other HHID write-ups, which proved both impossible and really fucking stupid, although it sounds funny.)

Paul's Boutique was released in 1989, three years after Licensed To Ill, and it immediately sold zero copies.  Although it earned a bit of critical acclaim, the use of multiple samples (I've joked in the past that Paul's Boutique samples every single song ever recorded, both before and since 1989, and I'm only half-wrong) proved to be too challenging for listeners, so the Beastie Boys found their second album (as a rap group; this was their third full-length project overall) collecting dust (no pun intended) on store shelves.  However, a funny thing happened on the way to their next project: people finally caught the fuck on.  Today, Paul's Boutique is praised as an experimental masterpiece that doesn't alienate the hip hop audience who grew up on Licensed To Ill: in fact, it was ultimately successful in expanding their fanbase beyond the rap world, which helps explain why they remain one of the most beloved hip hop groups in the genre today.

Paul's Boutique is one of my wife's favorite albums of all time; she's also been wondering why it's taken me forever to write about it, just for your information.  When we first met, she loaned me her copy and insisted I listen to it from start to finish.  (At the time, I hadn't ever listened to it before: my experience with the Beastie Boys started with Hello Nasty for some weird reason, and I worked my way both backward and forward from there.)  After absorbing the project in full (many many times), I figured out one thing: that girl had amazing fucking taste in music.  It would be ridiculous for me to claim that I married her just because of her musical taste, but...

1.  TO ALL THE GIRLS

Seems to take forever to pop up in your speakers, so by the time you realize that this is just a corny trifle of a rap album intro (unofficially, anyway), it's already fucking over.

2.  SHAKE YOUR RUMP

I've always believed that this song would have made a better intro to Paul's Boutique, but maybe I'm the only one who feels that way.  This track could still rock a house party at the drop of a hat, which is just a testament to both the playful rhymes from all three Beasties and to how the Dust Brothers managed to translate a shitload of samples into a timeless sound.  There's a Madlib remix of this song that I first heard on The Criterion Collection's Beastie Boys Video Anthology that rocks even fucking harder in an entirely different way, for those of you two who are into that sort of thing.

3.  JOHNNY RYALL

The Boys dedicate an entire track to Johnny Ryall, the "king of the homeless", and their otherwise playful and contagious tendency to pass the mic back and forth, sometimes mid-word, makes for an interesting juxtaposition to what should be depressing-as-fuck subject matter.  The Dust Brothers provide an instrumental that sounds as though it's going to pass out at any moment, with the drum hits acting as the paddles that shock its heart into pumping for just a little bit longer.  It is odd that a rap song written about a homeless guy would inadvertently portray the same dude as an alcoholic superhero, but this is a Beastie Boys song, after all, and an entertaining one at that.  So there you go.

4.  EGG MAN

This was the song my wife was most excited for me to hear when she found out that I hadn't yet listened to Paul's Boutique.  The overall vibe is playful, but kind of bleak, what with the overall violent theme and the Curtis Mayfield "Superfly" sample laid throughout, making everything sound funkier by default.  Proof positive that the Beasties had fun in the studio: why else would they devote an entire song to throwing eggs at motherfuckers, son?

5.  HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER

I've never cared for this track.  The outlaw-esque tale the Boys weave (without resorting to cliches borrowed from Westerns: in fact, the film Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry is name-dropped at one point) is okay, but the instrumental has always sounded incomplete to me.  Everyone involved with this track has done much better work.  Spoiler alert: "High Plains Drifter" is the only real misstep on Paul's Boutique.  So you have that to look forward to.

6.  THE SOUNDS OF SCIENCE

The Beastie Boys drop science and "k-nowledge" over a subdued Dust Brothers groove...at least at first, before everything switches up in favor of a dope-as-fuck beat that the trio absolutely murder.  Approximately nine thousand and two samples are thrown into every second of this song, including several Beatles songs that they probably just now found out about while reading this, so whoops!  You're welcome, lawyers for the Fab Four!  Anyway, this song is the fucking tits.

7.  3-MINUTE RULE

The song as a whole is longer than what the title would suggest, but Mike D., MCA, and Ad Rock rhyme for roughly three minutes combined, so I suppose it isn't an outright lie.  Production-wise, the brothers Dust lend our hosts a simplistic drum loop with some subtle scratching thrown in for good measure, while each Boy performs their own verse (without assistance from the other group members!  Shocker!), which has absolutely no connection to the last.  There's no chorus, no overall theme, and no real structure to speak of, just three hot verses that turn "3-Minute Rule" into one of the most obvious actual "hip hop" songs on Paul's Boutique.  "Simplistic" isn't always a criticism, folks: this track still chugs away just fine, twenty-two years removed from its release date.

8.  HEY LADIES

Probably the song most people marginally familiar with Paul's Boutique will remember, as "Hey Ladies" was the first single from the project.  It exhibited a sound that was worlds away from the rock-tinged loops prevalent on Licensed To Ill, and yet shares its sensibilities with that earlier album thanks to the Beasties and their juvenile (and catchy) rhymes.  Hardly what you would call radio-friendly, and yet you wouldn't ever want to kick it out of bed.

9.  5-PIECE CHICKEN DINNER

A short, goofy, banjo-driven interlude.  Which makes the transition into the next track much more jarring than it needed to be.

10.  LOOKING DOWN THE BARREL OF A GUN

Easily my favorite song on Paul's Boutique.  I fucking love this song.  Everything about it, from the violent lyrics, the guitar-driven beat, and even the video, which features a scene where the Boys pass around a bong in the backseat of a limo (I may be remembering this incorrectly), is fucking perfect.  References to A Clockwork Orange abound, which make complete sense when you listen to this track, unlike hearing the entirety of Cage's Movies For The Blind.  This is one of the very best tracks the Beasties have ever made.  Luckily for the trio, this wasn't the last good song they ever recorded.  It sounds much darker than the rest of the project, but it's still awesome in its own way.  Nice!

11.  CAR THIEF

This track is all over the place, thanks to the Beasties and their undoubtedly-recorded-under-the-influence verses,  The Dust Brothers come through in the clutch, though, lacing the instrumental (pun probably intended) with a nice fucking melody that helps move you along to the next track.  Kind of slower-paced, a bit too slow for my liking, but it acts as a reprieve after getting your shit kicked in by "Looking Down The Barrel Of A Gun", so.

12.  WHAT COMES AROUND

Aside from the use of the phrase hinted at in the title, which ranks among the most overused ideas in music history, this track is funky-as-hell diversion from the darkness prevalent on the previous two tracks.  Most of the lines make very little sense ("You're all messed up like pasta primavera!"), but the playful way in which they are delivered is fucking contagious.  But again, that hook hurts the track more than it helps: I'm just waiting to hear several rap songs interpret the saying "you get what you pay for" in their own respective special ways.

13.  SHADRACH

I had written earlier that "High Plains Drifter" is the only real misstep on Paul's Boutique.  That's still true, but "Shadrach", also released as a single for some ungodly reason, never grew on me.  There isn't anything technically wrong with the song itself, but I never really cared for the beat, which throws a lot of shit at the wall and uses everything that didn't stick, including an annoying-as-shit female vocal sample during what counts as the hook.  I'm sure that I'll hear a lot of shit for this in the comments, but I personally don't like this track.  But it does fit into the overall sound Paul's Boutique is going for, so that was nice.

14.  ASK FOR JANICE

A brief interlude.

The final track on Paul's Boutique consists of nine separate compositions which serve as a ridiculous, pretentious, and entertaining-as-shit outro.

15.  B-BOY BOUILLABAISSE

(A) 59 CHRYSTIE STREET

Given our hosts's penchant to pass off the mic after spitting a single bar, this quick mockery of a song, which sounds like a leftover from Licensed To Ill, ends up literally sounding like the three Beasties are getting ready to fuck the same girl.  Which is the problem with that type of format.  Let that be a lesson to all you new crews out there.  Anyway, this shit was bland as shit, so let's move on.

(B) GET ON THE MIC

Ad Rock and MCA spend all of their allotted time trying to convince Mike D. to get on the microphone, but their ploy doesn't really work, since Diamond doesn't actually appear on here (as a rapper, anyway).  The simplistic beat, combining drum hits with beatboxing, gives this brief song an old-school flavor that sounded like everything else back in 1989 but comes across as downright fucking refreshing today.  Not bad.

(C) STOP THAT TRAIN

This final track on Paul's Boutique is filled with half-thought out ideas that could never be stretched into full-on songs.  "Stop That Train" is an ideal example of this, as the Beasties give the listener two verses based around riding the train around New York City.  I liked this, but I wasn't in like with it.

(D) A YEAR AND A DAY

Somehow the guys fit three full verses into "A Year And A Day", which features distorted vocals that don't really add to the listening experience.  That Isley Brothers sample sure does get a fucking workout, though: I'm left wondering why nobody has ever used "That Lady, Pt. 1 & 2" in a similar fashion since.  It's been twenty-two years, people!  It's okay to adopt that idea!

(E) HELLO BROOKLYN

Jay-Z fans will recognize this shit right away, as "Hello Brooklyn" laid the foundation for American Gangster's "Hello Brooklyn 2.0".  This bass-heavy affair actually fits these guys much better than Hova and (shudder) Lil Wayne: even though you will at no point buy that the Beastie Boys are thugs, the very end, which segues into a Johnny Cash vocal sample, is chilling nonetheless.

(F) DROPPING NAMES

There's really not all that much to this, unless you're a fan of the Chemical Brothers song "Block Rockin' Beats" and you're interested in hearing that Crusaders "The Well's Gone Dry" sample being used in a slightly different manner.

(G) LAY IT ON ME

A quick trifle that doesn't exactly have "more flavor than Fruit Stripe Gum", but still sounds pretty goofy today.  I actually liked a lot of the individual lines on here, especially MCA's dismissal of the girl that spilled her wine "on my lyrics as you wasted my time".  He actually comes off as a bit harsh, which is commendable in and of itself.

(H) MIKE ON THE MIC

Mike D. finally takes the bait laid for him on "Get On The Mic", tackling this quickie one-verse wonder for dolo, sounding pretty damn good in the process.  It's enough to make you wish that the trio would occasionally let each other handle their own verses during the songs, but that wouldn't be the Beastie way.  I don't think I would want to hear Mike Diamond for sixty-plus minutes rapping all by his lonesome, but this?  This was nice.

(I) A.W.O.L.

DJ Hurricane helps the Beasties end Paul's Boutique with this simulation of a live show, on which their lone "verse" consists of the same rhetorical question ("What'cha gonna do?") repeated ad nauseum, all while the fake crowd screams their heads off.  A nice way to go out, I suppose.

"A.W.O.L." then leads into an unlabeled reprise of "To All The Girls", thereby ending our evening.  (Side note: the twenty-year anniversary reissue of Paul's Boutique inexplicably separates each "song" onto its own audio track, making it appear as though the re-release contains twenty-three tracks to the original's fifteen.  Don't be fooled.)

FINAL THOUGHTS:  Paul's Boutique is a masterpiece that somehow sounds even better now than it did when I first listened to it.  The Beastie Boys reinvented themselves for a second time on this project, and the end result not only stands up to the test of time, it's also one of the finest hip hop music releases in motherfucking history.  The production by the Dust Brothers precludes their work with Beck and (the hell?) Hanson, with their sample-heavy techniques bringing out the best of MCA, Ad Rock, and Mike D.  Lyrically, these guys will never win any awards, but their nerdy, reference-heavy bars and their knack for making everything sound playful is contagious, even when they dive into some of the more violent tracks on Paul's Boutique.  I don't believe that there's much more to be said, and not just because this means the stunt month is finally over: Paul's Boutique is just really.  Fucking.  Good.  So there. 

BUY OR BURN?  Buy.  Buy.  Buy.  Now.

BEST TRACKS:  "Looking Down The Barrel Of A Gun"; "Hey Ladies"; "Shake Your Rump"; "3-Minute Rule"; "Egg Man"; "Johnny Ryall"; "B-Boy Bouillabaisse"; "The Sounds Of Science"...oh, fuck it, the majority of the album

-Max

RELATED POSTS:

Beastie Boys - Licensed To Ill

A Quick Interlude Before This Month's Final Post

Every time I do one of these stunt blogs, I question my sanity about one week in, curse the day I agreed to do the blog in the first place during the second and third weeks, and then graciously look forward to my regular schedule of posting or not posting during the finale.  This month's focus on white rappers, both well-known and underground, both generic and bizarre, is complete: the final post has already been set up to be published later today.  But before we get to that, I thought I would discuss a few things.

December will find the blog getting back to some semblance of normalcy, with mostly Reader Reviews filling in some of the gaps that were created while I chose to focus on the stunt month.  Yes, I'm still accepting Reader Reviews, just like always, and some of the choices I have lined up for next month are ripe for discussion (in my opinion), but if you wish to contribute in the future, one minor tweak: please do not send me any write-ups for albums that have already been written about to death on the site.  I've decided that it's time to expand the focus of the blog to include as many rappers and rap crews as possible, and that's not going to happen if everyone sends me their thoughts on the GZA's Liquid Swords.  Shoot me an e-mail at the address in the sidebar if you're interested in writing, and send me a list of albums you're potentially looking into so we can hash out an agreement.

Thanks to my overzealous work schedule, some of this month's posts got lost in the shuffle by not getting posted on the days they were promised.  (See?  You weren't imagining things.)  However, if you look back at the month, you'll find twenty-nine different write-ups for artists that had never been the focus of any previous post.  Click on the link here to revisit them all, or to catch up on the ones you missed or didn't comment on (*cough* Eternia *cough*).

Speaking of the artists, I thought I would end this with a short explanation as to why I didn't choose some of your favorite rappers, in addition to answering a few questions.  I know you've been wondering: whatever the fuck happened to...

El-P?

There was a Reader Review of Company Flow's Funcrusher Plus a while back, and the whole point of this stunt was to write about people that never had a showcase on here before.  This meant that El-Producto had to take a knee, although it isn't as though I forgot he existed or anything.

Kno?

The CunninLynguists member already has an album with his crew, Will Rap For Food, on HHID.

Vanilla Ice?

This was an actual question, probably meant as a joke, but I didn't feel a need to write about the dude a second time.

Celph Titled?

Dude is Cuban.  Doesn't fit the theme.  I'm aware that his album with Buckwild exists, though, thanks to the five hundred and seventy-seven comments I received about it.

Aesop Rock?

Reader Review already posted up, yo.

Eminem?

Seriously?

How could you have written about House Of Pain or the DJ Muggs/Ill Bill album Kill Devil Hills if you've written about Soul Assassins projects in the past?

Because shut up, that's why.  Also, Everlast and Ill Bill were never actually the focus of any of those past write-ups, so I feel they still counted.

Why The Streets?  

Gotta start somewhere.  Given the response I received, it was a good idea.

Must you fit a Wu-Tang Clan affiliate (specifically Remedy) into every fucking thing you do on the site?  Because it's getting really old.

Yes.

Will you be doing this again?

Not anytime soon: the deadlines were killing me this month.

I'm kind of tired, so I'm cutting this Q&A a bit short, but particularly astute readers will notice that there was a major act left off of the "Why didn't you write about...?" list.  And with that, I'm off.  See you in a bit.

-Max

Sage Francis - Personal Journals (April 16, 2002)

This close to the end, I tend to get all loopy with my choices of albums to write about, but the subject of today's post has been sitting in my mythical pile of discs for years now.  It's difficult to decide what to write about when faced with so much material to choose from, but this current stunt month is as good a time as any to break out the Sage Francis.  

Paul Francis, who took the stage name "Sage" after opening a dictionary at random and choosing a word with his eyes covered, is an artist from Providence, Rhode Island.  He specializes in a particular sub-genre of hip hop, the one filled with rappers in the underground who express their frustrations in a unique manner, one that differs from the norm, while attempting to relate to the audience that somehow discovered them after running across their name on a hip hop blog.  That's how I found the guy, anyway.

Sage Francis started his career by bootlegging his own mixtapes (sorry, they're called "street albums" now), all of which were filled with his many rants set to music.  As is the usual with this sort of post, he gained a small following (if he hadn't, I wouldn't be writing about one of his officially released albums, would I?), and he quickly signed a one-off deal with indie label Anticon to record and distribute his debut, Personal Journals, which hit store shelves in 2002. 

(Side note: Personal Journals marks the first Anticon album that I've tackled myself on HHID, which means I can finally cross something off of my bucket list.  That Reader Review of the Bike For Three album earlier this year doesn't count toward this.)

1.  CRACK PIPES

The quick beat at the very beginning is interesting, but in no way a representation of how "Crack Pipes" (or Personal Journals) actually sounds.  Sage Francis eschews your typical rap album intro to give the listener two verses that are pretty good by themselves, but also serve as a challenge to the audience: if you like this song, you may like the album, but if you don't like this, you absolutely will hate Personal Journals.  I'd be willing to bet that the majority of HHID readers who listen to "Crack Pipes" (which isn't about what you think) shut the album off midway through.  For the record, I thought it was alright.

2.  DIFFERENT

Although I didn't actually use the word in the paragraph above, I fear that many of you two believe that I inferred Sage Francis to be an "experimental" artist.  That isn't really the case: he's just "Different", and he uses a pretty good Sixtoo beat to run down all the ways he clashes with his hip hop peers.  A lot of this is pretty fucking funny (Sage claims that he is a true underground raper because his "tape quality sucks" and his "CD skips"), but "Different" isn;t a joke-filled song: Sage Francis just exhibits an engaging flow that will make you wish the track were a few verses longer.

3.  PERSONAL JOURNALIST

Our host uses two quick verses to run down his own obituary, although if you listen closely, at least one of the lines doubles as an indictment of hip hop itself.  (I'll let you two figure out what line, and you can also determine just how much I'm reading into this shit.  It's been a long month, folks.)  Sage Francis isn't concerned with starting fights, though: he delivers his thoughts (over a guitar-flavored Mayonnaise instrumental) and moves the fuck on to the next one.

4.  INHERITED SCARS

Typical underground rap song from an artist who crams as many syllables as possible into every bar.  Performance-wise, this isn't new: our host has been doing that shit all along.  But "Inherited Scars" is the first song on Personal Journals that I just flat-out did not like.  The Mayonnaise instrumental, which mixes a breakbeat with a jazzy horn sample and expects them to get along, is fucking weak, and the lyrics suffer more than they usually would as a result.  This song just does not work.  Sue me.

5.  CLIMB TREES

Anticon released "Climb Trees" as the only single from Personal Journals, and I'm convinced they did this as an elaborate practical joke, as there is no fucking way that this song would have generated interest in anybody except a person who already had the album in their hands while walking to the cash register.  For what it is, though, it's pretty good: the lyrics are all over the place, but flow much better than on "Inherited Scars" (Sage's own form of shit-talking serves him well), and Jel's beat actually bangs, thanks to some additional flourishes layered around the hard-hitting drums.  You two may like this one.

6.  BROKEN WINGS

You know, you run a hip hop blog centered around album reviews hoping for the day that you discover that someone has had the audacity to cover Mr. Mister's "Broken Wings", and that day never fucking comes, and you're disappointed every goddamn time.  (2Pac's posthumous "Until The End Of Time" doesn't count: that was just a sample, and a lame one at that.)  Anyway, I liked Sage's two verses and the imagery placed within (the song's basically about love, although you may have to listen to it a few times before it clicks, thanks to all the talk about fairies not having functional flying apparatuses and all), but the winner of the day is Scott Matelic, whose beat rocks.  Kudos on the restraint shown during the final minute, too: you keep waiting for the drums to return, but they never do, leaving you to feel melancholy for the rest of the day.

7.  THE STRANGE FAMOUS MULLET REMOVER

Lest you feel too sad about the previous track, Sage Francis tries to lift your spirits with what is essentially an interlude.  One with a goofy-as-fuck title, too.

8.  SMOKE AND MIRRORS

I think the titular "Smoke and Mirrors" are what Sage Francis hides behind on this track, as he doesn't want the listener to discover that this entire track is a glorified nonsensical freestyle session (with an Ol' Dirty Bastard vocal sample thrown in for the hell of it).  It's not exactly a bad song, but there is very little to it, and as such, not a whole lot to recommend it with.

9.  MESSAGE SENT

After a brief interlude comes meh.

10.  EVICTION NOTICE

It's probably not a good sign when the artist has to constantly explain what this song is actually about: that means the extended metaphor isn't very clear or concise.  As expected, "Eviction Notice" is kind of a mess, in a half-brilliant, half-bullshit kind of way.  It's a decent idea, writing a song about the many addictions that can riddle a life, but Sage Francis sucks at his execution on here.  Oh well.

11.  PITCHERS OF SILENCE

Helps right the Personal Journals ship.  Over a really fucking good Sixtoo instrumental (it had to grow on me, but that happened quickly enough), Sage rattles off a one-verse wonder that sounds like braggadocio, but wears its heart on its sleeve, if verses ever wore clothing.  His depressing version of Bon Jovi's "You Give Love A Bad Name" at the end notwithstanding, I dug this one a lot.

12.  SPECIALIST

I liked the Controller 7 beat, but Sage's lyrics are all nonlinear similes and metaphors that sound clever but really aren't.  (The act of bleeding "off beat" does not exist, motherfucker, nor does it actually mean anything.)  Sage's relationship woes make for good fodder for a rap song, but "Specialist" is the first track on Personal Journals that sounds so much like fucking hipster bait that it's probably wearing skinny jeans and hasn't washed its hair in three weeks.

13.  HOPELESS

Actual spoken word poetry?  Without musical accompaniment?  Next!

14.  KILL YA' MOMZ

Another goofy interlude, along the same lines as "The Strange Famous Mullet Remover".  You probably won't listen to this more than once, although you may smirk at the De La Soul riff toward the end.

15.  BLACK SWEATSHIRT

Purports to be a song about an article of clothing, but actually runs much deeper, into the darker fears and insecurities that hide in your mind until the worst possible moment.  That's an overly dramatic way to describe this one-verse wonder, but the production is just that, overly dramatic.  Thankfully, our host is up to the task, as well.  Not bad.

16.  CUP OF TEA

Continues the darker theme introduced on...well, the entire goddamn album is pretty dark, isn't it?  I liked Sixtoo's instrumental quite a bit (that appears to be a running theme on Personal Journals), much more so that our host's actual lyrics, although he sounded okay, surprisingly sticking with the "Cup of Tea" metaphor throughout the song's running time.  Not quite as good as "Black Sweatshirt", but still decent.

17.  MY NAME IS STRANGE

Hilariously for me, "My Name Is Strange" marks the second Bob Seger reference I get to make during this stunt blogging month, as Sage delivers his own version of "Turn The Page" to the listener (and in front of a live audience, where this track was recorded).  The end result would have made for a better interlude than an actual song, but such is life.

18.  RUNAWAYS

I would love to hear a rap album end on a track that focuses solely on shit-talking, as the artist's subtle was of acknowledging that they aren't going anywhere.  That doesn't happen all that often in our chosen genre, and it definitely does not happen on Personal Journals.  The Joe Beats production isn't very sticky, but it suits Sage's need to be more serious just fine.  The track concludes on an extended outro that signifies the end of the album, just as it should.

FINAL THOUGHTS:  Sage Francis's debut full-length album Personal Journals is dense, but still highly enjoyable.  He has a tendency to lapse into what is essentially gussied-up spoken word poetry at times, but for the most part, he sticks with the script, which he wrote and had final say in, and his songs are that much better for it.  His delivery is unique not just in how the words are delivered, but in how he can cram in so many jokes and observations into a verse that you will have to listen to multiple times to understand, and yet nearly every song can be considered accessible to a general audience, one who has never heard of Sage Francis.  It helps tremendously that he aligns himself with some really good producers, particularly Sixtoo, who meet him halfway and transform his sometimes-random musings into workable songs fit for consumption.  Personal Journals holds up well today as a debut from an artist who will never see the mainstream unless he's watching someone else's performance on television, but Sage Francis holds his own in a crowded marketplace with a project that deserves to be heard.

BUY OR BURN?  If you're into the complete opposite of yesterday's Miilkbone review, I think you should give Sage Francis a shot.  He's an acquired taste, but then again, so is hip hop in general.

BEST TRACKS:  "Different"; "Pitchers Of Silence"; "Black Sweatshirt" "Broken Wings"; "Climb Trees"

-Max

Miilkbone - Da' Miilkrate (June 20, 1995)

One of you two astutely pointed out that I had promised to write about some guy named Miilkbone way back during someone else's Reader Review.  I figured that this month was as good a time as any, except for one thing: I couldn't find my fucking copy of the dude's debut album, Da' Miilkrate.  While I was able to find a copy through my local library's inter-library loan program, I wasn't able to get any fucking liner notes, which only really becomes a problem about halfway through the write-up.  Fair warning and all that.

Miilkbone, real name Thomas Wlodarczyk, was a New Jersey-based rapper who was tangentially linked with the group Naughty By Nature.  (I say "was" because he is no longer in the entertainment industry, and also no longer lives in Jersey.)  As he explains during the intro to his debut album, he grew up around hip hop culture and felt closer to it than any other line of work (at least in the early 1990s), regardless of the non-issue of his race, so he thought nothing about spitting a few rhymes and quickly scored a record deal with Capitol, a label who were out searching for the next great white hope.

Da' Miilkrate soon followed in 1995, and its two singles, "Keep It Real" and "Where'z Da Party At?", gained regular airplay at rap radio stations.  While it wasn't the hottest seller on the shelf, Da' Miilkrate earned a small cultish following, thanks to Miilk's street-based rhymes and a gaggle of better-than-he-necessarily-deserved beats (made up primarily of smoothed-out boom bap mixed with vocal samples from other, better rap songs doubling as hooks) from mostly unknown producers (although Naughty By Nature's Kay Gee steps behind the boards for a couple of songs).

Enjoy!

1.  NO GIMMICKS

This rap album intro goes the oft-used "interview" route, except the woman conducting said interview either has the worst possible script to work from, or she really isn't all that great at putting sentences together (what, exactly, is "the traditional career of other white males" supposed to fucking mean?  Do white guys only get a single career path to follow?).  At least our host's responses are decent.

2.  GHETTOBIZ

A note to all aspiring emcees of any nationality: you want the first actual song on your debut album to (a) grab the attention of the audience, and (b) set the tone for the rest of the project.  Miilkbone sounds decent enough during the actual verses (even resorting to some awkward imagery during the first few bars that made me laugh out loud), but his progress is weighed down by a shitty chorus and an ineffective Nick Wiz beat that practically begs to be put out of its misery.

3.  KEEP IT REAL

One of two singles from Da' Miilkrate that I actually remember, and it holds up surprisingly well, sixteen years removed from the original release date.  This is due solely to Mufi's still-pretty-good instrumental, which works in an AZ sound bite (taken from Nas's "Life's A Bitch") to perfection.  Lyrically, the track is kind of ridiculous: I didn't remember Thomas getting so cartoonishly homophobic during the middle stanza (but then again, this is hip hop).  Possibly the best thing I can say about our host's performance on here is that he sounds like the only guy that could ever tackle the instrumental.  No, seriously.

4.  MINDGAMEZ

Something new I discovered by listening to "Mindgamez": Miilkbone likes to walk around the block "with [his] cock as [his] glock".  Which would be hilarious if our host had any sort of sense of humor about our chosen genre, which is inherently silly.  There isn't much else on this shit-talking opus that sticks to your ribs, though, thanks to our host's immeasurably dull performance and the generic instrumental.  But hey, at least he was trying.

5.  TRAFFIC JAM

Skit...

6.  MOVE WIT' DA' GROOVE

I had forgotten that a good majority of Da' Miilkrate aimed for the middle ground made popular in the 1990s: hardcore hip hop set to a radio-friendly beat that guaranteed it airplay and television time while not alienating the street audience.  These songs are notable for including a severe amount of shit-talking that tricked the listener into believing it to be much deeper than it truly was.  A lot of the shit from the 1990s fits that description, including songs from artists that I champion to this very day.  But you know what?  This song sucked.

7.  HOW YA LIKE IT?

An altogether pleasant three-verse performance from our host is accompanied by an alright-enough beat that is punctuated by a lazy use of a Method Man sound bite during the "hook".  Still, this was okay: our host sounds confident enough to one day dream of becoming a compelling artist.  Today isn't that day, but I liked the track overall.

8.  FREESTYLE (FEAT. ? & ?)

That's actually a very appropriate title for what is essentially a glorified interlude.  The instrumental was pretty good, though.  Unfortunately, I have absolutely no idea who guests on this track, thanks to the missing liner notes and the not-so-helpful Interweb.

9.  SET IT OFF (FEAT. ?, ?, & ?)

I feel so bad for the three guests (one of whom is a female rapper, the same one from "Freestyle", if I'm not mistaken) who appear on "Set It Off": they seem to have been lost in the annals of time, as the Interweb is convinced that Miilkbone is the only guy who rhymes on this track.  This most certainly is not the case: I just have no fucking clue as to who does appear.  (Damn my lack of liner notes!  Any assistance you two may be able to provide would be appreciated.)  Producer Kay Gee gives our host and his weed carriers (I'm just guessing here) a decidedly non-Naughty By Nature instrumental that sounds alright, and everyone comes off as okay enough (except for our host, weirdly), but there are many better posse cuts out in the world.

10.  WHERE'Z DA PARTY AT?

The other single I remember Capitol releasing from Da' Miilkrate, with a sound bite from The Notorious B.I.G.'s "Party & Bullshit" providing the track its title.  This is purely an effort to gain a mainstream audience, with its radio-friendly instrumental and party groove, but that isn't a bad thing, as this track still sounds pretty decent today.  It is kind of weird that Thomas sounds more comfortable on these type of tracks than he does on the hardcore shit, though.

11.  MURDER VERBS (FEAT. ?, ?, ?, & ?)

I swear, there may as well not be any cameos on Da' Miilkbone, the way you'd see it online.  Luckily, this isn't a very good posse cut, so it doesn't actually matter.  The Mufi instrumental was clean, but all five verses kind of float on by the wayside.

12.  FAST CASH

Skit...

13.  KIDS ON THE AVE

Meh.

14.  CHECK ME OUT

The instrumental is pleasing to the ear.  Unfortunately, Miilkbone's verses all sound generically "street", and the chorus is motherfucking lazy.  It is what it is.

15.  BAMMA FAM

Skit...

16.  KETCHREK

I wanted to like this song, what with the spellcheck-be-damned title and the alright Butch Whip/Mufi beat, but I walked away from this shit feeling hungry.  It just doesn't add up to much today: our host's performance on "Ketchrek" is the first on Da' Miilkrate that sounds like he was actively auditioning for a slot in Naughty By Nature (or at least the Rottin Razcalz), and that lack of identity hurts the track far more than it doesn't.

17.  IT AIN'T THE SAME

It isn't, but you're probably not helping.

18.  2 ALL Y'ALL

Da' Miilkrate ends with what is supposed to be an outro filled with our host's shout-outs, if only he would fucking stop rhyming already.  This idea was actually pretty funny, albeit unintentionally: he delivers his acknowledgments in the form of two verses, even as his producer is trying to hustle him out the front door.  Not bad.

Da' Miilkrate ends with an unlisted bonus track.

19.  KEEP IT REAL (REMIX)

The unlisted bonus track ends up being a remix of "Keep It Real" that not only utilizes a different instrumental, it also houses different lyrics from our host.  In fact, the only bit of DNA shared between the original and its successor is the AZ vocal sample.  The beat sounds incomplete and lacks the sense of melody the original track rolled around in, so it should go without saying that this remix was a failure, but Miilk's new verses sound okay enough, so this wasn't a complete waste of my time.

FINAL THOUGHTS:  Miilkbone's Da' Miilkrate is an overlong debut project that doesn't hold up to scrutiny in this day and age.  Lyrically, Miilk isn't terrible behind the mic, but there also isn't anything special about the dude, either: his entire style sounds derivative, as though he were rapping along to his favorite songs when he was supposed to be writing lyrics to the beats given to him for Da' Miilkrate.  Speaking of which, the instrumentals on this project don't hold up as well as I had remembered: they vary wildly from pretty great to really fucking bland, but the majority of Da' Miilkrate resides in a middle ground that fails to connect with any audience.  When combined, our host occasionally hits the sweet spot (see: the 'best tracks' listed below), but more often than not, Miilkbone wears out his welcome by not standing out from the crows.  Da' Miilkrate is hip hop's equivalent to Muzak.

BUY OR BURN?  Neither.  Your time would be better spent waiting for the next post.  Probably.  I don't know: I can't think for you.

BEST TRACKS:  "Keep It Real"; "How Ya Like It?"

-Max

Brother Ali - The Undisputed Truth (April 10, 2007)

"Brother" Ali Newman is a Minneapolis-based emcee who is both legally blind and suffers from albinism.  As Ali tends to talk shit about every single interview he's done where the author can't help but harp on the one-two punch of what sets him apart from every other white rapper on the fucking planet, I figured I'd just get that out of the way now, since neither of those traits takes away from the fact that he sounds pretty goddamn great behind the microphone.

After recording his demo tape, he caught the ears of indie label Rhymesayers Entertainment, which quickly offered him a deal.  Although he produced the songs on his demo-turned-debut himself, he soon found himself working alongside Ant, best known as one-half of the duo Atmosphere, and they churned out albums side-by-side.  The Undisputed Truth was Brother Ali's third full-length project, released in 2007. 

I decided to start here, as opposed to the beginning of his catalog (which I have a tendency to do), because The Undisputed Truth received almost unanimous critical acclaim when it hit store shelves.  It's a concept album of sorts, loosely based around Ali's divorce, his struggle to gain custody of his son, and how he overcame the odds to live the comfortable life that he can share with his family (one that is filled with IKEA furniture - hey, he never said he was rich: he's signed to Rhymesayers, after all).  The Undisputed Truth was also the first of Brother Ali's albums to be distributed by the Warner Brothers music machine, which meant that you could easily find it in big box stores such as Best Buy and Target, and that his music probably plays at the bar of your local Chili's.

Don't hold that against him, though.

1.  WHATCHA GOT

The Undisputed Truth kicks off with a knocking Ant instrumental, one which Ali attacks like a starving artist presented with half a Big Mac.  The first chorus takes place on an entirely different planet, apparently, and doesn't gel with the track, but the rest of the song (especially the actual verses) are pretty fucking great.  In lieu of a third verse, Brother Ali steps out of the way for some tactical scratching that complement this introductory missive.  Nice!

2.  LOOKIN' AT ME SIDEWAYS

Ant's beat is also pretty moving, although not quite as much so as the previous song.  It doesn't really matter, though, since Brother Ali runs through two long verses without breaking a sweat.  Our host drops the idea of "saving" hip hop from its current captors during the second stanza, which focuses solely on talking shit while working around his religious beliefs, but that's for the best, as personally, I'm sick of hearing people talk about bringing real hip hop back: it hasn't worked for any of these other motherfuckers, so what makes you so goddamn special?  Anyway, this was still pretty potent today.

3.  TRUTH IS

This was good, but it didn't hit me as hard as the first two tracks on The Undisputed Truth.  It isn't really anyone's fault: Ant's beat is decent, and Ali's three verses connected in a way that the bland chorus just could not.  But the end result is a swing and a miss.  Songs that preach about ways to make the world a better place ("Children need to hear more truth when y'all teach 'em") that also manage to work in the phrase "Who the fuck want what" can't be all bad, though.

4.  THE PUZZLE

I absolutely hated the instrumental on here.  Just couldn't fucking stand it.  The combination of the twang-y loop and the vocal sample used during the hook just made me want to strangle Ant with the cord to his cell phone charger.  Which is a shame, because Ali's lyrics on here were pretty good.  The first verse helps build up the listener when life's got them down, and the follow-up features our host admitting that his life isn't all that great right now, either.  This is all expressed in a relatively short song that does wonders for proving that Brother Ali has to deal with the same shit that a lot of you two have in front of you.  Sigh.

5.  PEDIGREE

"Pedigree", although a bit corny, still swings The Undisputed Truth back in the right direction.  It's altogether pleasant, with two solid verses accompanied by a sing-songy chorus that probably would have sounded terrible coming from any other artist.  Somehow Ali makes it all work, and for that, we salute you.

6.  DAYLIGHT

This is as close to an attack on those who think of Brother Ali in a pigeonholed manner solely because of his skin color as we're going to get on The Undisputed Truth.  The funny thing (well, not funny "ha ha") is that, well, Ali actively shuns his own skin color, primarily because he can't relate to white people due to his experiences growing up, even though white people relate to him for the most superficial of reasons.  Ant's instrumental is poppy: not too poppy, so you won't hear this on the radio ever, but poppy enough to turn off hardcore hip hop heads who may skip to the next track before understanding how conflicted and upset Ali sounds on here.

7.  FREEDOM AIN'T FREE

I couldn't get into this track.  Lyrically, I appreciate that Ali rhymes about personal experiences more than he trash-talks, and this song, which follows his decision to convert to Islam as a teen, is no exception.  But Ant's instrumental, with its hints of reggae and its overuse of the "R&B sample as part of your hook" idea, loses me entirely.  It is what it is.

8.  LETTER FROM THE GOVERNMENT

I didn't care for Ant's beat on here, either: apparently I prefer his work on Atmosphere albums.  I really liked Brother Ali on here, though, as his three verses questioning the logic behind being forced to join a military for a government that you didn't vote for, to fight in a war that you don't support or agree with, all sound really fucking concise.  Our host is smart enough to not go so far as to talk shit about those who choose to serve their country, but his point is still valid even today, especially as we're still in the middle of a fucking war.  What the fuck?

9.  HERE

I'm really not.

10.  LISTEN UP

Ant and Ali go the old-school route with a sing-along chorus that sounds like a hipster impersonating a party rap song.  That sounds like an insult because it is one.  Ali sounds alright on his actual verses, though this song doesn't resonate as much as the rest of The Undisputed Truth thus far.  I don't remember disliking the production on this album so goddamn much: Brother Ali's powerful bars deserve complementary beats.  I'm probably alone on this, though.

11.  TAKE ME HOME

Meh.  Today is just not my day.

12.  UNCLE SAM GODDAMN

That title can only be for one of the album's pillars, and the combination of Ant and Ali don't disappoint: finally, they both sound like they're on the same page, even though I have a feeling that Ant doesn't share Brother Ali's controversial thoughts about his home country.  Our host's alleged hatred of the United States isn't as hard-hitting as one would imagine: I think that even Ali realized that he happens to live in one of the only countries on the fucking planet that allows him to practice whatever religion he feels most comfortable with.  He doesn't get overly political on here: he just seems to question everything the government says and does.  He's like Michael Moore, but without a crappy movie like Canadian Bacon under his belt.

13.  WALKING AWAY

Ant brings a blues-y production to Ali's breakup tale, on which he takes the high road, refusing to stoop to the level of his now-ex and, instead, wishing her well in life.  Possibly the calmest breakup on wax today.  I dug it, though: it shows how much Ali has matured as both an artist and as a human being, even as he slickly talks a bunch of shit and alleges that she tried to kill him.  Weird, that.

14.  FAHEEM

Ali drops a quick one-verse wonder dedicated to his son Faheem, which is both sweet and pretty fucking good, thanks to Ant's instrumental.  Almost as though he was anticipating young Faheem listening to "Walking Away", he's quick to discuss how relations between himself and his mother broke off without resorting to backhanded potshots, which is admirable, as I'm a firm believer that talking shit about your child's missing parent is one of the worst fucking things you can possibly do during your kid's upbringing.  Ali handles everything just right, though.

15.  EAR TO EAR

Brother Ali ends The Undisputed Truth with the final chapter in what has become a trilogy of autobiographical tracks, this one describing how happy he is now that his ex-wife is gone, how he's since found love, and how proud of how smart and resourceful his son is.  What makes these songs work is how genuine Ali sounds: you can actually hear the motherfucker smiling a big goofy grin during "Ear To Ear", which is a rare trait to find in our chosen genre.  A pretty goddamn great way to end things.

FINAL THOUGHTS:  I wasn't kidding about Ant's production on The Undisputed Truth: a lot of it rubbed me the wrong way, so much so that I don't understand what the fuck all of the other critics in Blogland were smoking.  But Brother Ali's lyrics help the medicine go down, so I'm convinced that everyone else heard a special advance pressing that consisted solely of acapella performances.  To be fair, not all of Ant's beats are bad: in fact, some of them are pretty awesome.  This is the Brother Ali show through and through, though, and his powerful lyrics almost make the case that the words are more important than the music.  Almost.  This is me we're talking about.  Anyway, The Undisputed Truth takes numerous side trips of varying degrees of quality, but overall, this album is worth your time and money.  As such...

BUY OR BURN?  ...you should buy this album.  Missteps aside, this holds up extraordinarily well today, and Brother Ali isn't only talking shit on here, which was a nice change of pace after this stunt month,

BEST TRACKS: "Whatcha Got"; "Faheem"; "Ear To Ear"; "Pedigree"; "Lookin' At Me Sideways"; "Uncle Sam Goddamn"

-Max

Edan - Primitive Plus (March 19, 2002)

Edan Portnoy, who didn't have to look far for his 'Edan' rap moniker, is a Maryland native who specializes in rhyming, producing, and deejaying.  Although he's classified under the more "alternative" banner when it comes to our chosen genre, he traffics in a love for the old school, filling his songs with samples, scratches, and flows reminiscent of the late 1980s and early 1990s whenever the mood calls for it.  However, Edan is fully capable of bringing himself to the modern age whenever needed, as his "debut" album, Primitive Plus, proves.

Primitive Plus ended up being the first full-length project Edan would release, but it isn't really his debut: that honor would have to go to Architecture, which he recorded in his dorm room during his sophomore year at Berklee School of Music: only a handful of those songs ever saw the light of day as twelve-inch singles.  After signing with Lewis Recordings, he scrapped his original effort and started recording anew, the result of which is the album that I'm stuck sitting here with while wondering why I decided that November would be a good time for a stunt month, what with the holidays and all of the Christmas shopping and all.  

Primitive Plus was met with critical buzz and, as expected, low sales numbers, which people still equate with low quality product, but those people are fucking retarded.  The songs run the gamut from parody to probably-should-be-parody, and that is meant as a compliment to the man's skills.  Edan handled nearly every angle of the project himself, performing all of the rhymes (save for those provided by a couple of guest stars), handling all of the production (save for one short track), and lending the album all of its scratches, which firmly places it in the hip hop section of your mom-and-pop record store, where it collects dust to this day while everyone asks for the whereabouts of Drake's Take Care.

Sigh.

1.  '83 WILDIN'

Serves as a rap album intro that is mostly instrumental, partially filled with vocal samples, and experimental all the way through, but with some dope-ass drums thrown in for good measure.  This track sets the overall tone fairly well, and the creepy use of the Pac-Man music at the end leaves you with an unnerving feeling that is a tiny bit more frightening than anything Necro and the Insane Clown Posse were able to conjure up this month.  Huh.

2.  ONE MAN ARSENAL

The first real song on Primitive Plus features our host providing two verses and an outro over an old school-esque instrumental that hits hard up front, but leaves a hint of melody behind.  The verses were okay enough: nobody's ever going to list Edan as their favoritest rapper ever, but he doesn't suck behind the mic by any means.  Toward the end, he explains that he not only wrote and produced "One Man Arsenal", he also provided all of the deejay scratches, which not only gives you two some insight on just how hard he worled for the track to sound complete, it also helps confirm the accuracy of the title.  Not bad.

3.  HUMBLE MAGNIFICENT

The drums on this aptly-named track pound on your brain even more so than the previous song, which, in hip hop, can only be a good thing.  The scratched-in vocal samples that make up the "chorus" are a bit off the wall and don't fit the proceedings quite as well, but Edan's two-and-three-quarter verses (he ends the final stanza prematurely to get ready for the next song) sound a lot better than he did on "One Man Arsenal".  The shit-talking has also been kicked up a notch, which was nice.

4.  MIGRAINE (ALMIGHTY DUST MIX)

Our host claims that he wants to take the listener back to the "golden age" with this track, a remix to a song that he released independently on a twelve-inch single back in 1999, but the instrumental on here smacks more of experimentation than it does the way old school rap used to sound.  This is in no way a bad thing: although I didn't care much for the beat, I will admit that it helps move things along smoothly.  Edan turns into his own version of Rakim behind the mic, unleashing a flow that hits many of the same points without tarnishing the man's image; as such, this comes off as a lovely homage to one of the best who ever did it.

5.  KEY BORED

Our host spits a quickie over a looped sample from a Mozart composition (handled by DJ Eli), which means that he didn't have to pay for the sample.  It makes you wonder why more producers don't just simply lift from classical music more often.  Anyway, Edan kicks some of the most random shit on here, letting his mind float from subject to subject in that way only rappers can seem to pull off, so this wasn't that bad.  Also, it being short (it doesn't even last for two minutes) helps tremendously.

6.  EMCEES SMOKE CRACK

I wasn't feeling this one, but I appreciated Edan's attempt at a laid-back track after the last four songs.

7.  #1 HIT RECORD

All sorts of ridiculous, but in a funny way.  It's amusing the first time around, anyway.  Our host's one-verse wonder is one of the goofiest performances on all of Primitive Plus, so as long as you look at this solely as an interlude and not an actual song, you're good.

8.  SYLLABLE PRACTICE (ORIGINAL)

Edan helpfully explains during the intro that this song consists of "battle raps", which means that "[he] won't say anything significant...but it'll sound pretty".  And for lack of a better way to put it, he's right: this does sound pretty.  The instrumental is calming, but dope nonetheless, and our host's two verses weave around the drums and the melody with ease: even though you'll walk away convinced that Edan was clowning on how he believes underground hip hop actually sounded back in 2002, you'll still be entertained by the level of skill involved.  Strange, that.

9.  GOOD EVENING (SKIT)

An uncredited skit thrown in around the halfway mark.  Kind of enjoyable, in its own way.

10.  RAPPERFECTION (FEAT. MR. LIF)

Edan finally lets another rapper in on the fun, and the result is the winning "Rapperfection", which allows our host and Mr. Lif to deliver a single verse each over a banging beat.  This song also happens to be the very first one on Primitive Plus that doesn't sound as though it were performed with tongue firmly planted in cheek: Edan comes across as your typical underground rapper on here.  And in no way is that a bad thing: he sounds confident and sarcastic behind the mic all at once, and Lif complements his work with an excellent guest verse.  Nice!

11.  MIC MANIPULATOR

Meh.  This was the first single released from Primitive Plus, too.  Take that as you will.

12.  PRIMITIVE PLUS

Edan performs alongside a higher-pitched version of himself (think The Notorious B.I.G.'s "Gimme The Loot", except on helium) over a beat derived solely from a human beatbox.  This wasn't bad, but it isn't all that good, either.  This title track is salvaged only by our host's actual rhymes, which are interesting enough to keep the listener, well, listening.

13.  YOU SUCK (FEAT. FATHER TIME)

It would be too easy for me to write that this song sucks, but it isn't a very good representation of what Edan is capable of.  The instrumental sounds kind of lazy, and the rhymes themselves are too cocky for someone in our host's position.  I realize that I just trashed someone's rhymes for sounding "too cocky" in our chosen genre, where cockiness is pretty much the flavor of the day, but it is what it is.

14.  RUN THAT SHIT!

An interesting study in contrasts, as Edan uses this smoothed-out instrumental to rap about robbing motherfuckers of increasingly absurd items (money, sneakers, earrings, a bagel, "your little brother", among others).  This shit actually works because, even though it's all a goof, our host sounds like he's taking every single word seriously.  The bit with the girl who sucks him off and is then forced to give up her jewelry at gunpoint straddles the line between wrong and really fucking wrong, but aside from that casual misstep (which was included merely because, well, this is a rap song, after all), "Run That Shit!" was pretty good. 

15.  ULTRA '88 (TRIBUTE)

This was kind of hilarious.  Edan uses "Ultra '88 (Tribute)" to pay loving homage to the Ultramagnetic MC's-era Kool Keith by unleashing his impression of Keith Thornton on this quickie one-verse wonder.  The strange thing is, even though it doesn't entirely work, it still connects with me, probably because there isn't anything malicious about it (as opposed to, say, Party Fun Action Committee's takedown of MC Paul Barman).  His instrumental is also a decent Xerox of what Ultra was working with back in the day.  The random shit being spewed at the very beginning is also funny as fuck, especially the absurd imagery of having a cheeseburger signed by Slick Rick in your freezer. 

16.  SYLLABLE PRACTICE (12" VERSION)

An alternate version of the track that appeared earlier, except without Edan engaging the listener by explaining what he's trying to do with the bars.  As such, it fades into the background, never to be heard from again, unless it shows up at its cousin's wedding out of obligation or something.

17.  A.E.O.C.

An instrumental track to get us ready for the final song on Primitive Plus.  Kind of nice in its own way.

18.  SING IT, SHITFACE

Primitive Plus ends with a previously released track that slides into the tracklisting seamlessly.  This song has more of a scatological focus than the rest of the project, which isn't a shock if you actually read the song's title above, but Edan's two verses are funny without betraying the fact that he's actually pretty good behind the mic.  The chorus is grating to the ears, but it's all done with a smirk, so it's hard to get too upset.

After a brief period of silence, "Sing It, Shitface" finally segues into the final track on Primitive Plus.

LET'S BE FRIENDS

This was just a corny plea from Edan aimed at all other rappers to hang out.  It's stupid enough to laugh at, but it isn't silly enough to warrant repeat listenings.  It's probably best for all parties involved to pretend that "Sing It, Shitface" marked the true end of Primitive Plus.

FINAL THOUGHTS:  Edan's Primitive Plus finds the midpoint between El-P and MC Paul Barman, if we really must compare underground rappers at this point (which, yes, yes we do).  The rhymes alternate between straight parody and genuine wordplay, but for the most part, our host succeeds either way, and his work on the production side of things is impressive.  Not every track on Primitive Plus works, as Edan sometimes allows his sillier impulses to get the best of him, but looking past that, this album is a surprisingly cohesive debut that showcases the best of what Edan is capable of accomplishing without dwelling too much on the mistakes.  His obvious affection for hip hop also shines through, which may help the majority of you two succumb to Edan's charm.  Primitive Plus was pretty good.

BUY OR BURN? I would recommend a purchase, but only if you enjoy your hip hop with a side of humor.  Edan is an acquired taste that you may not take a liking to within the length of Primitive Plus, but there's enough good songs on here to make the effort anyway.

BEST TRACKS:  "Humble Magnificent"; "Run That Shit!"; "Ultra '88 (Tribute)"; "Rapperfection"; "Syllable Practice (Original)"

-Max