My Gut Reaction: Psycho Les - Psycho Therapy: The Soundtrack (February 13, 2007)

As you’ve likely noticed, especially this year, hip hop sees multiple new releases every single week. There are many factors involved that play a role in this turn of events, which is a topic for another day maybe, but you can watch the end result play out on the Interweb every Friday: so-called “heads” burn through every single new release in an effort to be the first to hear them, an exercise that grows more and more ridiculous with each passing week, as there is absolutely no way that anyone is deriving any sense of enjoyment from these speed-listens. So writers such as myself find themselves forced into one of two factions: either they go out of their way to write about as much of the new material as possible, gaming their respective outlets for clicks and such, or they don’t even fucking bother trying to keep up with the crowd, choosing to listen to music at their own pace and writing about shit when they get around to it. I, obviously, fall into the latter category. The fallacy of my chosen path, however, is the increased likelihood that a lot of each week’s projects will simply fall by the wayside, doomed to be forgotten.

For me, that happened with that last Roots album I reviewed, and it happened to Psycho Les’ solo debut, Psycho Therapy: The Soundtrack. Of course, a lot of my “forgetting” that the Psycho Les project even existed could also stem from how I never really saw the need for production-slash-rapping team The Beatnuts to release individual efforts. I’ll have to talk to my own therapist about that, I guess.

The Beatnuts are best known for their production work, which they’ve sold to outside artists but typically save for themselves. Their musical tastes run eclectic, which give their strand of boom bap a whimsical, playful, and masochistic slant, pummeling the listener into submission with the sheer catchiness of their instrumentals. Rhyme-wise, Psycho Les and his colleague Juju are fine, if nowhere near great: the playful spirit of their beats extends to their lyrics, which live comfortably in the boasts-n-bullshit realm while never straying from violent street shit that they are legally required to provide for you as artists from New York. They’ll never be known for their bars, but the Nuts have more than a few classic tracks under their belt, and they’ve been granted ancillary membership to the Native Tongues collective because of their production. They’ve been in the game for a long time, and even though their most recent album, Milk Me, dropped way back in 2004, they’re still active within our chosen genre.

Psycho Lester decided to take his show on the road back in 2006, recording and releasing his debut, Psycho Therapy: The Soundtrack through a joint deal between DJ Honda’s label, DJ Honda Recordings, and Lester’s own Pit Fight Records. The Nuts had formed a working relationship with Honda in the past, and given his large fanbase in his home country of Japan, it seemed like an effective way for Lester to build his own brand. Psycho Therapy: The Soundtrack is not a soundtrack to a film or any other sort of media: my guess is that Psycho Lester thought the title would be funny. Instead, it’s merely his solo debut album, on which he fully produced and kept the guest list to a minimum.

Why Psycho Les was the one from the group to go solo is a story that isn’t for me to tell, but I will say that Junkyard Juju was always regarded as the (slightly) better lyricist of the two. Lester’s past bars always seemed to revolve around drinking, smoking, and fucking whenever he wasn’t bragging about being the best at whatever random hobby the song was celebrating. Possibly as a way to solidify a separate identity from The Beatnuts, Juju is nowhere to be found on Psycho Therapy: The Soundtrack, leaving Lester to both collect all of the possible praise and suffer through any and all blame assigned to the project. Which is an awful lot of pressure to put on an artist who is releasing their very first album, regardless of how long they’ve been in the rap game, but that’s where we are as a country.

I ignored Psycho Therapy: The Soundtrack largely because of my whole “but I wanted another Beatnuts album, how dare you” attitude, but also because I had simply forgotten about it, sadly. It was quickly buried by all of the other releases in 2006 and 2007. Lester doesn’t seem to have lost a step, though: since this project, he’s released another project, Dank God Vol. 1, that appears to be his version of The Chronic-slash-Soul Survivor (I wouldn’t know, I haven’t listened to that one, either – I guess we’ll find out together in ten years when I finally get to it); formed another group called Big City (alongside Problemz and former Beatnut Al Tariq); with Juju, joined forces with their closest West Coast equivalents, Tha Alkaholiks, to form the supergroup LikNuts, which has yet to produce much of anything even with their hilarious group name; and even promised more Beatnuts projects in the future. Psycho Therapy: The Soundtrack may have moved so few units that Lester had to buy most of them back and keep them in his mother’s basement in Queens in order to avoid paying storage fees, but at least he’s taking everything in stride, I suppose.

What I’m saying is, Psycho Les will be fine regardless of what I ultimately think about Psycho Therapy: The Soundtrack. You, however, may not be.

1. INTRO

Frustrating, as Lester works a sample that could have made for an interesting beat, or at least an instrumental interlude, but quickly abandons it in favor of some film dialogue (I assume, anyway – it could also be from television) that I couldn’t place. Groan.

2. THE MAN

Exactly the kind of gimmicky song Lester couldn’t get away with on a proper Beatnuts project. “The Man” immediately confirms what I was most afraid of when I first started playing Psycho Les’ debut solo effort; namely, the man’s own rhymes, which are delivered even slower than usual. I understand that this was done purposefully, as he is both trying to match the tempo of his instrumental (which I kind of liked for its simplicity) and keeping enough space to lay in multiple dialogue samples that finish his bars for him, not unlike some of J-Zone’s earlier work or Redman’s “I C Dead People”, but that care taken in ensuring he doesn’t step on the samples causes our host to sound apathetic, lazy, and even less convincing than he has been in the past. Too bad he didn’t give the beat to someone else. I’m worried about the rest of this shit now.

3. OH MY! OH MY! (FEAT. JACK OF PSYCHO REALM & SONNY OF P.O.D.)

Bizarre, but not in any way that should entice either of you to actually listen to this. “Oh My! Oh My!”, first off, is censored for some strange reason, which wouldn’t really matter if the lyrics given were good enough for us to look past that, which they definitely are not. Lester and guest Sick Jacken (credited as ‘Jack of Psycho Realm’ on the back cover) both deliver rather generic bars that reek of vague boasts-n0bullshit over a very dull Lester instrumental that is punctuated by a tone-deaf female vocal performance during the chorus. And then Sonny Sandoval, lead singer of what Wikipedia refers to as a “Christian nu-metal band” P.O.D., performs the third verse, and while he at least sounds more animated than his cohorts, he still comes across as someone who woke up one day and decided they could rap without ever honing the skill required to, you know, rap.

4. FEEL IT BABY (FEAT. K-SOLO & BLACK ATTACK)

Psycho Lester swings for the fences and produces a motherfucking banger. Now this is what I was hoping I would hear on Psycho Therapy: The Soundtrack: a fire instrumental that pulsates around the shit-talking from the emcees present. “Feel It Baby” is nice as fuck… although there is one caveat: guest Black Attack, who handles the middle verse, sounds at least eighteen types of awkward, never finding the pocket and, honestly, never actively trying. He’s terrible, folks. But the music is so good that you’re willing to sit through him just to get to Lester’s closer, which wasn’t bad at all. “Feel It Baby” belongs to K-Solo, though, whose opening verse knocks this motherfucker right out of the park, and other baseball metaphors I don’t care enough to use right now. More like this one, please.

5. SHO ME THOZE!

I knew it would be too much to ask for our host to continue the trend of “Feel It Baby”, but it still sucks that he shifted back into perv mode so goddamn quickly. “Sho Me Thoze!” at least earns points for laying in a goofy sound effect during the hook to accentuate just how silly this entire song truly is: at least Psycho Les has a sense of humor? But for a song all about how much he loves breasts, it’s still weirdly tame and corny. This ain’t it, chief.

6. MY MUSIC IS CRACK (FEAT. TRIPLE SEIS)

As a statement of fact, “My Music Is Crack” is at least partly accurate: I can’t speak for everyone here, but for me, the very best Beatnuts instrumentals are those that I could listen to on a loop forever without growing tired of them. Lester and Juju have a gift. But as a track on Psycho Therapy: The Soundtrack, “My Music Is Crack” just isn’t going to prove anything to anyone. Bolstered by Triple Seis’ hook, Lester gives the listener two verses of boasts-n-bullshit that just refuse to connect with anyone: hell, even our host sounds bored while reading his lines off of his handwritten notes. At least the actual music was kind of catchy, though.

7. PARTY RITE HERE (IT’S GOING DOWN) (FEAT. G-WISE)

Honest question: before “Party Rite Here (It’s Going Down)” was released, was there anybody involved who truly believed this shit sounded like any sort of party that someone would attend voluntarily? Lester’s lo-fi beat sounds like it was sourced from old educational videos and feels like it’s still being haunted by the soul of a deceased professor whose one regret was never learning how to play an instrument, and the talkbox effects from guest G-Wise were annoying as shit. Skip over this one quick.

8. DRUMS INTERLUDE

Literally an interlude with drums. Truth in advertising, folks.

9. UNSTOPPABLE (FEAT. WILLIE STUBS & GOBLIN)

Not quite as hard-hitting as “Feel It Baby”, but still a step back in the right direction. Lester’s instrumental is a little bit more unnerving, only calmed down by the drum loop, which acts as the lead blanket protecting you from your anxiety. Willie Stubz, whose nickname is misspelled on the back cover,  spits a decent first verse, even though I couldn’t remember anything he said, but to be fair, I also have no idea what Psycho Les spit either, and I just finished listening to this song. Likely, this is because Goblin’s gritty-voiced hook on “Unstoppable" is the best aspect of the track in general: his vocals are a stark contrast to not just the sound our host has cultivated here, but for Psycho Therapy: The Soundtrack as a whole. Not bad, though.

10. BRIGHT LIGHTS (FEAT. COLUMBO)

The fact that there’s a rapper out there named Columbo is fucking hilarious. What isn’t so funny is how bland “Bright Lights” ultimately is: the guest’s voice and hook consist of generic braggadocio, and Lester doesn’t manage to fare any better, except for one all-time great line he gets off: “Look both ways before you cross me” is fantastic, and also applicable to everyone’s daily lives. Go ahead, set that up as your email signature at work. You know you want to. Use it as an Instagram caption. Do whatever you want. Just know that you don’t have to listen to this song first or anything.

11. SMOKE MAD LA

This was a fun sleeper hit that belongs on everyone’s Beatnuts playlist, and not just because it sounds exactly like the type of track Junkyard Juju should have jumped on. Lester’s instrumental fucking floats, even with the addition of flutes and the female harmonizing throughout that should have been corny, but only adds to the high. “Smoke Mad La” is a song about, well, smoking weed, and our host’s bars go off the rails fairly quickly, as though he freestyled these in the booth while high as shit, and yet that still only adds more entertainment value to the mix. This was enjoyable as shit, you two.

12. GRANDMA’S SANDWICHES

This one’s also just fun. Over a jaunty, simplistic number set to a break beat, Psycho Lester delivers some tighter-than-usual verses and a catchy chorus that flows as well as the better Beatnuts tracks. If “Grandma’s Sandwiches” was the bar our host had set for Psycho Therapy: The Soundtrack, this would have been a far more entertaining project. But even with his line about Las Vegas not making much goddamn sense, perhaps we should just appreciate what we have, right?

13. BOUNCE 4 ME

Because we could have gotten an album full of this horseshit. Ugh.

14. I KNOW WHERE YOU AT (FEAT. DJ HONDA)

The finale ropes in DJ Honda for an assist behind the boards, and it’s… fine. “I Know Where You At” is fine. Our host sounds focused and serious about finishing the song, at least, and his instrumental could have been a worse loop, obviously. But it isn’t good enough to make you wish that Psycho Therapy: The Soundtrack wasn’t yet over.

But wait, there’s more! At least if you live in the United States, anyway. The Stateside version of Psycho Therapy: The Soundtrack comes with four additional tracks tacked on to the original program.

15. BIG PSYCH!

Needed an entire audio track to say three words, eh? I’m sure the Japanese audience was pissed that they missed out on this.

16. SUPA SOUL

The instrumental already sounds cleaner than most of Psycho Therapy: The Soundtrack, so clearly our host had been holding out in the studio. Or at least his lyrics betray that video: Lester admits he’s working harder in an effort to be recognized as a great producer. The beat isn’t bad, to be honest, and Lester sounds pretty good over it, but he isn’t as polished as the anonymous, uncredited guest rapper who I couldn’t place (and honestly, I didn’t even try all that hard, as I’ve listened to far too much hip hop in my lifetime and voices tens to run together these days, so if you two could help me out, that would be nice). No clue why our host couldn’t have just used this on the proper album, but shrug.

17. KEEPIN’ IT GANGSTA

Psycho Lester gives his frequent collaborator, an uncredited Chris Chandler, a showcase, only delivering the opening verse before retreating back behind the boards. Chandler croons along gamely, but “Keepin’ It Gangsta" is as generic as its very title. Our host’s musical backing is pretty far removed from gangsta, and Chandler’s vocals seem to have transposed “threatening” with “smooth”, and the overall effect doesn’t quite work. It was nice of Lester to give his friend this track, though.

18. GET PAID GET PAPER

The final song of the evening comes to the party with a bag of ice and an unorthodox instrumental in the vein of some of my personal favorite Beatnuts tracks. “Get Paid Get Paper” isn’t going to become one of those personal favorites, though, as its ingredients never quite gel. I will give credit to Psycho Les for delivering focused bars, but he doesn’t sound as playful as he typically does, so they don’t work. “Get Paid Get Paper” closes with ad-libs from yet another uncredited artist – just what was it about Psycho Therapy: The Soundtrack that caused Lester to want to rush it to store shelves Stateside without having someone proof the copy first? Ah well.

THE LAST WORD: Psycho Therapy: The Soundtrack still hasn’t justified its reason to exist for me. I will give credit where it is due: Psycho Les comes across as a more fully realized artist than I had expected, as there are no points within the project where you’ll find yourself missing Juju as a part of this experience. (Merely wishing that Junkyard Juju lent a verse to a song or two isn’t the same thing.) He holds up his end rather well. Most of the instrumentals on here are pleasant enough, perfect for having on in the background while you’re clicking through your computer or, if you’re me, poring through piles of compact discs (I know, what are those, right) to find something better to listen to. Lyrically, you know exactly what you’re getting into with the concept of a Psycho Les solo album, but there are still a few tracks on here that are fucking great even within those lowered standards. But while our host has proven that he is capable of carrying a project on his own, he never answers why he should, and a lot of the songs here tread the exact same lyrical territory, which makes this play as one overly long track at times (especially on the longer Stateside release). “Feel It Baby” is pretty goddamn fantastic if you can overlook Black Attack’s middle verse, and deserves to be heard, as it is the epitome of the type of hidden gem I always hope to find whenever I do deep dives into side projects such as this. And I don’t hate the majority of this album (aside from the shit that’s awful, which, well, you can read my thoughts above). But do you need to hear Psycho Therapy: The Soundtrack? No, not really, not even if you consider yourself to be a Beatnuts fan. This is a curiosity piece, but nothing more: you wouldn’t be clamoring for additional Psycho Les solo efforts anytime soon.

-Max

RELATED POSTS:

As mentioned at least eleventy billion times in the post, Psycho Les is a member of the group The Beatnuts, whom you can read more about by clicking here.