Finally
managing to fulfill one of his promises, Kenna Zemedkun released the
third and final entry in his Imitation Is Suicide series in December
of 2013. I say “finally” even though it was hardly the dude's
fault that all of his other rumored projects and release dates fell
by the wayside: that can easily be blamed on his record labels and
the music industry as a whole, running with the current trends
instead of trying to build an artist from the ground up. So maybe
this joint venture with Dim Mak, Steve Aoki's label, will pay off
handsomely in the end.
Land 2 Air Chronicles II: Imitation Is Suicide - Chapter 3, its mouthful
of a title, is the third in a trilogy (a trilogy which, when
combined, is supposed to be merely the second part of the Land 2 Air
Chronicles series: Kenna's certainly ambitious when he wants to be).
Each chapter featured three songs all produced by the same person;
the initial entry featured the work of Chad Hugo (the quieter half of
The Neptunes and Kenna's main producer), while the middle contained
work by 9 Of Hearts, someone who I've personally never heard of
before and is probably just Kenna wearing glasses to hide his
identity. This final chapter is the one most heavily anticipated by
hip hop heads who also enjoy listening to Kenna, so by three people,
as it was handled exclusively by underground stalwart RJD2, whose own
career runs the gamut between DJ Shadow-esque sample-heavy beats to
alternative rock.
Sadly,
Land 2 Air Chronicles II: Imitation Is Suicide - Chapter 3 ends up
merely being an excuse to collect tracks that RJD2 did for Kenna in
the past: of the three songs presented, only one of them is brand
new. Still, none of these tracks have ever appeared on any proper
album, so I suppose it could be much worse.
1.
IMITATION IS SUICIDE
It
took us three EPs, but Kenna finally gives the listener the title
track to the Imitation Is Suicide series. The thing is, this song
was actually released back in 2009, so fans hoping for more original
material from Zemedkun are shit outta luck. The track itself is
alright: RJD2's production is weirdly upbeat for a song whose lyrics
gloss over Kenna's depression post-breakup. The title is much cooler
than the final product, although I liked our host's overall message:
refusing to learn from your mistakes can only result in more failure.
Then again, this series of
EPs could have been saddled with a much dumber name, so.
2.
HOW WILL IT END
The
lone new song on Land 2 Air Chronicles II: Imitation Is Suicide -Chapter 3 sounds like an outtake from our host's debut, New Sacred
Cow, at first, before RJD2's beat hops a fence into wildly different
territory roughly halfway through, boosting the energy tenfold. (The
music switches up a third time toward the end, with not quite as much
success, but it's still worth mentioning.) “How Will It End” is
actually pretty fucking good, running a gamut of emotions as Kenna
navigates the shifting moods of the instrumental and his psyche.
Although I would have enjoyed this track had it stuck to its
melancholy muse at the beginning, it's nice to hear how our host is
capable of adapting at the drop of a hat.
3.
POLITICS (FEAT. JOJO)
The
final track in the series is also a rerun, a previously-released
number featuring onetime pop star Joanna “Jojo” Levesque, who
these days might be more famous for her cover-slash-rewrite of
Drake's “Marvin's Room” in 2011 than she is for her own material.
(If it helps, she doesn't seem to contribute all that much to this
song.) This may have been justifiable as a six-minute song had the
subject matter actually been overtly about politics, but as it is,
Kenna only discusses that topic in a roundabout, metaphorical way.
Which is fine, as nobody wants to hear Kenna whine about serious shit:
we're here to listen to a dude sing about love and all of its quirks.
RJD2's instrumental is surprisingly simple, which is, oddly, a
distraction: since this is an RJD2 production, you keep expecting
there to be a bit more flourish, and all of that anticipation causes
you to not pay all that much attention to our host's lyrics.
THE
LAST WORD: Over the course of this series, Kenna has proven that he
can take almost any beat thrown his way and turn it into something he
can call his very own, his plaintive love songs adapting to nearly
every environment they've been introduced to. However, some
producers just manage to pull it off better than others, so while
RJD2's work on Land 2 Air Chronicles II: Imitation Is Suicide -Chapter 3 is commendable and even manages to take a risk or two, this
EP is the worst in the series. Chad Hugo manages to successfully
bring out Kenna's playful side, and the middle entry by 9 Of Hearts
works on all levels. None of this is to say that RJD2's work is
boring, but I've heard better production from him in the past, and he
will most certainly deliver better work in the future. Above all
else, though, Kenna's artistic voice hasn't lost a step from the
early days of New Sacred Cow: he's sticking with what he feels, and
that is very much appreciated in this day and age. Seek this one out
if you must, but I would recommend listening to his older work while
patiently waiting for a third full-length album instead.
-Max
RELATED
POSTS:
Catch
up on the Imitation Is Suicide series here and here, and as for the
rest of Kenna's catalog, here you go.
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