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The Run-Off Groove #152:
What's More Offensive, Words Or Skin Tones? (Or Akon Ringtones...)

By da bookman on April
30, 2007 - 11:20pm.

Aloha, 152, 152, this is Book, a/k/a Book, occasional bukbuk, b/k/a
John Book with a
brand new edition of The Run-Off Groove. Forget clever intros,
let's start things right off the top.

Canto
I (Canto-Eye) are a duo consisting of two brothers from Reno,
Nevada who want to share their true love of the music and the community
that is hip-hop. I know, everyone and their grandma does that these days
for the sake of saying so, but it's rare to hear that statement coming
from anyone and then actually hear it in their music. Canto I say the are
about "No gimmicks. No fancy clothes. No gold grillz. Just good old
fashioned boom bap hip-hop." If you're going to go back to the old boom
bap, you best do it right. Right? They have been making music since the
beginning of the century, each CD doing fairly well locally. With Entry
Level - Elements (self-released), it not only serves as an initiation
to the next level of their career, but it's also acknowledgment of their
influences, and the artistry involved, for they are now contributors of
that artistry.

A lot of people talk about the "golden era" of hip-hop, one that older
fans cherish because it's what they/we grew up with, what inspired them to
get involved in music, and a part of our past. Within that golden era was
a period of a few years where it felt as if experimentation was as
important as "keeping it real", the time before the Wu-Tang Clan
hit the scene and broke big. When you hear the groove of the opening
track, "Entry Level", in your mind you want to walk outside, walk down the
sidewalk and commit to the strut. Yeah, that strut with the attitude that,
no matter what clothes you wore, it let people know that you were a
hip-hop fan. Even if no one knew or cared, you felt confidence in the
music that felt like it meant everything to you, and you walked, step by
step, feeling like the world was yours. Effect and Joe Fury
are guys who are comfortable with the way they rhyme, very clear and
accurate with phrasing, and also aware of timing. I'm not talking about
the fear of being off-tempo, but like a comedian, one has to have a feel
for how to move their words and lines across the beats, and be able to not
only make them sound good, but to make it sound effective. "The Shining"
has the feel of The Pharcyde and Souls Of Mischief with the
beat serving as the pulse, and the lyrics and samples becoming the blood
flow. You feel it instantly, and you anticipate these guys as they about
to deliver their words to the microphone, and as soon as you hear it, you
know. One doesn't even have to explain it, you just know. There's no
stupidity, no foolishness, Canto I are a group you can become a fan of
with pride and honor, without worry, as it seems everything is a perfect
fit.

I say this because I feel it's true, it moves me. It moves me to want
to let people know about it. Effect and Joe Fury are helped out with
producers who are very much into the craft, the fine art of production,
knowing their music and knowing how to find the right samples, with most
of the tracks being done by a guy people should seriously look out for,
Jape. The album
also features productions from Pacemaker, Steez, and The Foundation
Unit. Together, they make an album that features solid lyrics and
instrumentals, where you want to put this on repeat over and over. What I
also like is that the album seems very progressive, and while I want to
hesitate in saying this, it's a bit like prog rock in that songs come one
after the other non-stop, while some tracks will switch tempos and styles
a few times within the same song. Fans who aren't used to that may feel
the approach is not exactly "true" to what the music is about, but the
music is about the freedom to do what you want, and it's a feel that is a
throw back to the spontaneous, anything goes approach of the Beastie
Boys and Jungle Brothers, or Siah & Yeshua Dapo Ed.
The one song that moved me was "Burning Bridges", as each of them offer
one verse each in the first half. In the second half, they say You got
a minute? (Why?) There's a bridge I need to cross
There's a missile
seeking launch, I'mma help you lift it off, and by helping, they are
assisting each other in the passing of the mic, bouncing off each other in
a manner that makes this song a soon-to-be classic. It has the essence of
the old school but the presence of the now, and done without ego. One is
easily reminded of Smooth Da Hustler and Trigger Tha Gambla,
Q-Tip and Phife, Lateef The Truth Speaker and
Lyrics Born, and Nice & Smooth, to the point where it
feels like you're hearing two distinct voices from one being. Odd? Nah,
just something that hasn't been heard in this manner in a long time.

It's progressive hip-hop without going over people's heads, complex
without being heady, and in your face without constant reminders of how
hard they're hitting you. This is definitely one of 2007's brightest
moments in rap music.

(Entry Level - Elements is available through CDBaby.)

What is
The Missing Link? When it applies to hip-hop, Bella believes
she knows what it is, and perhaps she could very well be a part of what's
missing. Her self-released, 11-track album is one of those that should be
getting a lot of attention on lyrical merit alone, but the year isn't over
so there's time. What I like is that during the choruses, it sounds
typical of a lot of today's hip-hop, where hooks and catchiness is often
more important than anything else. However, Bella is about "anything
else", as one can hear in "Flows Up", "What U Lookin' At?", and "Girl
Stunt". She puts herself up to the test by initializing contact with the
listening in "My Own 2":

What you know about being a mama with three sons
Homicidal
ex-husband walking with guns
This ain't no bootleg flick, real chick on
the mic
Hip-hop version of Mary, this is "My Life"
I been through it
all, but I refuse to fall
And it's more to me than big tits and my
sugar walls
Look deeper, come close to the speaker
Daily getting
stronger, working out to live longer

She calls herself a "natural born diva", one who refuses to stop going
for what is hers, and fans who may like Eve, Mystic,
Medusa, or pre-bling Fat Joe will find her work to be
exceptional.

(The Missing Link is available through CDBaby.)

I don't remember how I heard of this guy before, I may have
seen him on Beefy's MySpace page and decided to check out this guy
with the name of MC
Frontalot. With a name like that, I couldn't help but listen to
it. Frontalot considers himself to be the creator and leader of the
"nerdcore" movement. Granted, there have been a lot of nerds in hip-hop's
recorded history, but the best leaders to follow are those who set their
own rules and standards. Frontalot has different guidelines that no one
knows but him, and by following them he is able to establish his own
following without pressure from others who want him to fit in with any
specific pigeonhole or hyperbole. What? Yeah!

Secrets From The Future (Level Up Records & Tapes) has him
traveling into the future looking for information that may provide some
kind of guidance for what's to come, whatever it may be. According to
Frontalot, the internet will be dated and the language will be much more
complex than it is now. In time, he goes on to tell the listening "I Hate
Your Blog", "You Got Asperger's", and trying to find the mystery behind a
"Bizarro Genius Baby". Frontalot may come off as a comedian, and perhaps
it's appropriate since a lot of his songs are funny. There are jokes, but
Frontalot isn't, and there's a point to everything, which he does through
over-the-head words and rhymes, but not anything that will give you
flashbacks of Sir Menelik.

One may look and hear these elements and go "oh, that's that backpacker
shit" but if you get rid of the stereotypes that exists with that phrase,
one tends to find a guy who celebrates his geek club membership without
fear. He likes to pop in and out of character, and by doing that it's hard
to tell which is the persona and which is the real him, and that's
probably why it works so well. Take some of the best elements of
Beck's hip-hop tracks with the confidence of Slug and the
attitude of Edan, and you have hints of what Frontalot sounds like.
He is his own man, and yet is he a front? Well, there's a real person
behind the persona, so perhaps it's more about how ahead he is of his
front.

(Secrets From The Future is available through CDBaby.)

There's a lot of people in New York saying that New York
hip-hop is back. It's an answer to the dominance of hip-hop from other
U.S. regions in the last 15 years, namely the Dirty South. Ask someone to
pick sides, and it gets as ugly as getting into a discussion about the
Mason-Dixon line. Ain't Nothing Greater, or A.N.G., is the name
this Brooklyn MC goes after, and true to the MC that he is, there could be
a number of meanings to his name. Taking on the bravado and pride of
Muhammad Ali, A.N.G. could be saying that there is no other greater
MC than him. Yet if one looks into the history of the music, and the
importance of Brooklyn and New York City to hip-hop as a whole, he could
be easily proclaiming that there ain't nothing greater than NYC. The cover
shot has him holding "The Rap Bible" and a microphone as a torch, an
updated interpretation of the Statue Of Liberty, but suggesting that when
it comes to representing the huddled and frustrated masses in the
boroughs, it may very well be that guy around the corner with a notebook
and hot mic ready to strike.

Lighter Fluid (Explode) continues the
traditions of New York hip-hop by tapping into the strength of such
artists as Juelz Santana, M.O.P., and Mos Def, and
coming across as a rapper with knowledge of what it takes to me a quality
rapper and lyricist. A.N.G. isn't new to the scene, he had been involved
with a group or two in the late 80's before finding a bit more stability
as a solo artist. A few years in jail for first degree assault forced him
to take a time out from his surroundings and his life, to rethink things
and perhaps re-establish things once he got out. Much of those thoughts
were put to paper, some of which are presented on this album.

If one were to ask what does New York hip-hop sound like today, one
could easily suggest this CD without hesitation, as it contains the
roughness of the artists who are out there, mixes the uncontrolled
frustration of the streets while reaching out for a bit of pop
accessibility ("Mount Up" could easily be mistaken as a song from the
D-12 camp), and showing a bit of Jamaican flavor along the way as a
bit of dancehall stylee pops up every now and then. "Some" could easily be
turned into a hit single as is, with his tales of the hustlers and
gamblers who have to always be ahead of the game, but by saying so he is
telling people below him that they need to step up a bit in order to see
him eye to eye.

You will hear references to the bling and the women, but it's not the
emphasis of the songs or his music. The tales of living the good life is
one of the themes, but it's not exactly a good life with the reality of
the world we live in. A.N.G. tells stories of his experiences from the
past and present, knows what the struggle can lead to, offers a toast to
those who still have to fight the good fight, but finds inner strength
through family and friends. It's not the umpteenth variation of
Scarface. it's the life of someone who is able to present his music
and his story his way. A fine accomplishment.

(Lighter Fluid is available through CDBaby.)

NOW, WE LOOK AT AN ALBUM THAT IS DEFINITELY OUTSIDE OF THE HIP-HOP
REALM (albeit slightly)...

A man
enjoying getting fucked up the ass by a donkey, because the donkey loves
it? Man, I don't even want to know how in the hell David Wang found the
sample for that, but it's one of many elements that makes Girls ♥
Breakcore (Daly City)
one of the most bizarre, twisted, outrageous, exciting, and beautiful
electronic-based albums I've heard in awhile. Wang performs under name
Mochipet, and he calls his style of music breakcore, which of
course inspired the album title. Mochipet combines any and every element
he can find, from funk to rock, speed metal to disco, then turns up
everything by 500 percent and makes it pulsate until your sack comes out
of your nose. Imagine Anthrax's first album cover, Fistful Of
Metal, but mix it in with sour li hing mui Gummi bears with just a
gentle dusting of crystal meth. That's what the album is pretty much
about, and the end result is amazing. It's not going to be for everyone,
especially for those who prefer their electronic music (regardless of
tempo) to be stylized. Oh, Mochipet has style, but his approach is more
along the lines of free jazz, as if The Boredoms hung out with
The Chemical Brothers on 78rpm.

The song titles are fairly simple: "Tumbacore", "Botan Ricecore",
"Clarinetcore", "Hyphycore", and "Donkeycore" (along with the tender
"Justin Timberlakecore"), but sonically this music is anything but simple.
Anything and everything that is considered "wrong" in electronic-based
recording (or recording in general), he'll turn up the volume
considerably, point at it, and have everyone laugh at it, then record the
laughter and slow it down by 47 percent for atmosphere. You hear hints of
techno, jungle, IDM, and all of those sub-genres URB readers know
and love, but if there's any consistently in Mochipet's art of paranoid
noise, it's that he does things with a sense of humor, and that
distribution is equal to all that he makes fun of. It's not unlike what
Kid Koala does with records and turntables, but this guy's music
feels as if it's on a major sugar rush that never slows down. This is
easily one of the best albums of the year thus far.

(Girls ♥ Breakcore is available on vinyl and CD, and is
available directly from Daly City
Records.)

That's it for this week's Run-Off Groove. I currently have 18
different reviews on standby ready to go, with another 18 on the way. I
haven't done a jam-packed column, so come back next time. There will be no
excuse for you not to discover something new, and no excuse for you to not
have any music this summer, whether you're heading for vacation, keeping
to the books, or going to local parks looking for discarded aluminum
cans.

If you have any music that you'd like for me to review, contact me and
I'll send along my contact information. I go through each CD I receive,
one by one, from start to finish, and everything sent into me will be
reviewed. From hip-hop to electronica, country to blues, Americana to
jazz, the next column will feature something for everyone, so all that I
ask is for you to return and see/read what new music is out there.

In closing, as the old Hawaiian song says, "May Day is Lei Day in
Hawai'i". Mahalo nui, and I'll be back with #153.

da bookman's
blog

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