Saw him live in 2009. Was not ready for that kind of music yet. Didn’t care for him much. Now I’m getting into him heavily. Searching here it seems he has a fanbase here. Really getting into him, I love the music and actually really like his voice when he doesn’t just talk through something. What other hip hop artists/albums would i like?
It’s no help, but seeking out many hip-hop artists on Definitive Jux or Ninja Tune probably wouldn’t hurt
All I’ve hEard was niggy tardust. Which I like. But that’s all i’ve ever listened to, unfortunately.
I’ve been a huge Saul Williams fan for around 12yrs now after hearing his track “Twice The First Time” on Big Dada Records which is the sister label of Ninja Tune Records. His 2nd self titled album is easily his best followed by his first.
His books are incredible and his film “Slam” was superb too.
I saw him live in 2005 with just a DJ and he was deadly. I saw his Niggy tour and it wasn’t as bad-ass for me personally although it was obvious he was now a full on “star”… which he deserves to be as the guy has more talent in one finger than one million of the million record selling artists out there combined.
As for Hip Hop recommendations I can give you many as I’m a massive record collector and Hip Hop is one of my main loves. My all-time fav album on the planet is from my all-time fav emcee…Aceyalone. The album is called “A Book Of Human Language” and it is 100% pure class. I’ll post the rapreviews review of it at the end of this post so you can get an idea of what it sounds like…basically if you like Saul you need to buy A Book Of Human Language immediately as imo Saul has never made an album that comes close to it.
Other Hip Hop albums you NEED to look into are…
Edan “Primitive Plus”
Edan " Beauty & The Beat"
Aceyalone “All Balls Don’t Bounce” through to “Love & Hate”
Freestyle Fellowship “To Whom It May Concern” & “Innercity Griots”
Mika 9 “1969”
Roots Manuva…all of his stuff.
Anti-Pop Consortium “Arrhythmia”
People Under The Stairs…all their stuff is pretty awesome.
Then of course you have the old skool stuff…first and foremost you have to have the first 4 or 5 Schoolly D records. Schoolly is the coolest emcee that’s ever been. Then you have guys like Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane, Marley Marl etc etc
Of course there’s a million other artists in the world of Hip Hop that make great music and I’m sure folk will pipe up here.
Anyway here’s the RapReview of Aceyalone’s “A Book Of Human Language”…
Aceyalone :: A Book of Human Language :: Project Blowed
** RapReviews “Back to the Lab” series **
as reviewed by Matt Tomer
Drop the press kits. Forget about that other wack shit I got in the mail. I’ll be right back, I’ma just grab me something to drink - hold up - this is a “Back to the Lab” review?" Nah… Of all the records to sleep on, this couldn’t possibly be one. I mean, could it? Ears have opinions, too, and Lefty’s telling me to track down Steve ‘Flash’ Juon for answers. Righty’s telling me it’s okay; that “Human Language” is an album beyond reviewing; that no one even bothered to save themselves from the hassle. Shut up guys This is bullshit. There’s just no way this hasn’t been covered yet.
Wait…
Sure there is. As lauded as Aceyalone certainly is in the RapReviews archives, it’s but another testament to his sophomoric masterpiece’s criminal overlooking that it’s taken eight good years for its inclusion. If there were ever such a bitter contradiction: that which I’ve always considered hip-hop’s crowning achievement hardly blips on the radars of even established heads. And Ace-One knows a thing or two about establishment. I won’t go in depth, but he’s kind of a big deal; he helped put “smart” left-coast hip-hop on the map, was an integral member of the legendary Freestyle Fellowship, and oh yeah, there’s that handful of classic albums. The first of which, “All Balls Don’t Bounce,” is a landmark hailed by J5 fanboys and rock critics alike, often referred to along with Pharcyde’s early work as the roots of conscious western rap.
Yet, during the prime of his career, when the man could have rapped about cement drying and kept your interest, he was… ignored? Now that makes no sense. But for all these years, none of that mattered to me, and it still doesn’t. Aceyalone’s second LP made me not care. About what? School? Check. Girls? Sure. God’s great interstellar galaxy? All but the headphones - that, too. It’s not like he invents the metaphor, nor do punch lines have you whooping “OHH” 8 Mile-style all alone in your bedroom. He creates an atmosphere it seems nobody else would or could visit even if they wanted to.
The concept is frighteningly brilliant, yet elementary enough to seem childlike. There are, of course, a handful of musicians, outside and in hip-hop, who have also gone with the storybook approach, each track representing a chapter and such trimmings. Only in this case actual “chapters” are never mentioned or even alluded to; by way of each song’s grandiosity, it is assumed. And even within Ace’s tales, he scarcely reflects the famed “story” raps of yore (Big’s “Warning;” Common’s “I Used To Love H.E.R.”). Each song is a gorgeously abstract take on life, death and their composing elements. “The Balance” dissects the ancient yin-yang theory ever so finely, seeming to create its very own center of energy: “Check your balance beam with a feather and rock, yo whether or not you find the answer it’s really not the plot/see it’s like love and hate - the same emotion, different weight/people love to hate, so I know you know just how this all relate.”
Ace asks you to “consider him part of the dust” in “The Guidelines,” implying that he and all of human life are ultimately insignificant. On “The Grandfather Clock” he cautions just how explosive the element of time is, literally taking a word from it: “I control how long you stay alive - I’mma tap you on your shoulder at 11:55 when the time’s arrived.” “The Walls And Windows” would seem a fantastical journey through the surreal, and it is, but it’s also Ace’s standing on unfavorable judgement and the paranoia surrounding it: “see my windowpane got so much pain the glass is bustin’ out the frame/so let the candle kindle in the window as a symbol/I leave my window open hopin’ I might get a breeze, but when the wind comes in, the eyes come in, and the eyes don’t seem to wanna leave.” He notes the unfair advantage of personal appearance on “The Faces,” and stares his taker in the face on “The Thief In The Night:” “I hear it moves swiftly, underneath the nose/'til one day you come face to face, you gonna cross the line, you’re lost for time.” Ace’s phrasing more closely resembles classic poetry than the rhyming of KRS-One, giving the album the storybook feel for which it’s known.
“A Book of Human Language” would be comparable to Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland even without Ace’s rendition of “The Jabberwocky.” A stirring nonsense poem about a mythical creature, it reads like something he probably could have conjured up himself, and is just ridiculous enough to make for one of the album’s many highlights. At this point the pace is already set; only before, turning back might have been an option.
With “Human Language” cinematic as is, of course producer Mumbles is deserving of much credit. His beats are dark, fitting the mood like a warm mitten; somber 50’s jazz playing as prominent a role as sampled clock ticks and earthy growls. Nearly every sound is bleak and just slightly off kilter, but each beat is melodious and, unlike most avant garde rap, even induces head nodding. Throbbing horns and a thumping break give “The March” a lively pulse, and hectic riding cymbals and upright bass turn the title track into a bustling, bumpy ride. Mumbles’ work on “Human Language” may not be THE best of all time, but never has a beatmaker surrounded his emcee with a more appropriate selection. Furthermore, the emcee and his maestro achieve a level of chemistry unmatched by even the greatest of duos; from Premier and Guru to Madlib and Doom.
In the annals of RapReviews.com, there are but few perfect “10’s,” all of which have been carefully and seldom awarded. It might be because of our rating system that there aren’t even fewer; perhaps on a scale of 0 to 1,000, some of our “10’s” might have been “995’s.” Who knows? I do know there is only one album I deem perfect. Flood my inbox with the hate of a pubescent Anakin Skywalker, but it isn’t “36 Chambers.” It’s not “Ready To Die,” it isn’t even “Illmatic.” It’s the furthest thing from the streets hip-hop could get, yet it’s a flight of stairs from the stoop. It has nothing to do with your life at the same instance it is wholly and most certainly applicable. You may put it in your walkman, but it’s hardly even a CD. It’s “A Book of Human Language.”
Music Vibes: 10 of 10 Lyric Vibes: 10 of 10 TOTAL Vibes: 10 of 10
Oh and by the way…Saul’s new album Volcanic Sunlight was released in France a few months back…not sure when the USA/UK get it though??? It’s very pop…I think it’s great…here’s a video from it…
Dance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoAOX3oy6tA&feature=relmfu
And lastly I better mention this record…
Ice :: Bad Blood :: In Bloom/Reprise
** RapReviews “Back to the Lab” series **
as reviewed by Nin Chan
In my continuing efforts to expose Rap Reviews readers to the bizarre, obscure gems of my worryingly large record collection, I have now taken it upon myself to spare some ink to this record, one which has had more influence on my own artistic output than damn near anything I can think of.
Before I embark on a self-indulgent tirade of ceaseless superlatives, I should probably provide some form of introduction to this criminally overlooked outfit and the illustrious artistic pedigree that they possess. Spawned from the fertile imagination of one JK Broadrick, Ice is essentially Mr Broadrick’s premier full-fledged excursion into the unhallowed depths of dark, ambient, trippy hip-hop. To those of you in the know, JK Broadrick’s lengthy resume includes a brief stint in Napalm Death, one of the most rabid, nauseatingly fast heavy bands of our time, a similarly short tenure with Head of David and a legendary career with electro-metal legends Godflesh, a band that over a 16 year career convinced me that few experiences in life can rival a Godflesh record. Fusing the downtuned guitars, barbarous, bloodcurdling screams and bloodthirsty indignation of grindcore/metal with the syncopated rhythms of jungle and hip-hop, Godflesh managed to absorb electronic and metal influences to create something wholly unique and distinctly grotesque, a monolithic beast altogether more gruesome than anything that had preceded it. To think that such unearthly sounds could be concocted from a primal base of electronic beats and downtuned, sludgey guitars is uncanny.
Anyway, I digress. It is common knowledge amongst Godflesh enthusiasts that JK Broadrick was rather vocal about his passion for hardcore rap, asserting that Godflesh had far more in common with Public Enemy than grindcore contemporaries like Extreme Noise Terror, Sore Throat and Nausea. While he had previously explored hip-hop and dark dub with exploits like Godflesh’s Slavestate EP and the remix project Songs Of Love & Hate In Dub, it wasn’t until this landmark record that he truly indulged his overwhelming affinity for rap music. Yet, this is far from a predictable listen- eschewing the artistic complacency of so many contemporary rap records, this is a sinewy, brooding, malodorous monster of a record, one that is as much a visceral statement as it is a musical experience.
If you have never heard a Godflesh, Final, Head of David or Curse of the Golden Vampire record, it is quite likely that this record will stagger and confound you upon first listen. While it sounds wholly unlike any other rap record you’ve likely heard, it is remarkably predictable in the sense that it sounds exactly like a JK Broadrick take on hip-hop should sound- the omnipresent low-end rumbles like a seismic wave, while Broadrick ornaments the sparse drum patterns with walls of oppressive, disorienting white noise. Opener “X-1” builds upon a foundation of live percussion and a plodding bassline, swirling into an apocalyptic, cathartic maelstrom of blips and disorienting, reverb drenched effects. “The Snakepit” employs a similar formula, driven by a mechanical, stuttered rhythm that pulses beneath Toastie Taylor’s manic, breathy toasting. As the track progresses, subtle nuances are progressively introduced into the track- tablas faintly echo in the background, as Toastie’s vocals and Blixa Bargeld (what the hell is he doing on this record?) are layered on top of each other, creating a suffocatingly dissonant effect that gives the song a uniquely claustrophobic feel.
Elsewhere, like-minded sonic terrorist El-Producto makes a memorable experience on “Trapped In Three Dimensions,” delivering a scattershot, stream-of-consciousness verse that sprawls all over the bhangra drums. 30 seconds into the track, A-Syde proceeds to deliver a verse atop El-P’s, his vocals panned to the right as El-P waxes poetic on the left. WHAT THE FUCK? Eventually the double-tracked vocals fade to give way to a glorious downtempo breakdown that sounds like prime Massive Attack, Justin Broadrick’s sparse guitar plucks drowning in a jet-black, worryingly spacious sea of ominous, gnarly bass and deliberate, leadfooted drums. Only JK Broadrick could succeed in making downtempo trip-hop so deliciously demonic. While Portishead/ Massive Attack used downtempo to convey feelings of loss and melancholy and Wax Poetic transformed it into viable lounge music, Ice injects it with venomous, caustic bile and barbed sarcasm. A note must be spared here for the laudable use of live percussion throughout the record, courtesy of one Lou Ciccotelli. The live percussion gives the record a warm, organic, human feel that juxtaposes beautifully with the otherworldly electronics and droning, cruel basslines used so liberally throughout the record.
I can almost guarantee that you have never heard a rap record quite like Bad Blood. Twisted, uncompromisingly dark and vile, this is a record that you will either adore or detest. For that reason alone it is worthy of your attention- in an age where few records inspire anything beyond casual nods of the head, where much music has no greater purpose beyond being mere background noise, this is a record that will inspire fear, disgust and general uneasiness as it ventures into territory that no rap record has ever dared to traverse. If you consider yourself a fan of music and already have a jones for stuff like Dalek, DJ Vadim, Company Flow, Silver Bullet, The Bug, Soundmurderer etc., you need to give this a listen.
just getting around to grabbing some of these, i moved and don’t have internets so i only get to download when i go to my parents now. but thank you for the post, will follow up with updates.
Good times.