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Surreal Life
Nearsighted nerds with ill nicknames. Cats wearing Vans and...
Can I Have
Pharrell Williams' new dolo offering "Can I Have It Like That" is not...
Mos Def
Many in the black community feel that some Americans would sooner...
STAY TUNED
Read Tanya Morgans - Stay Tuned review by Will Dukes on Pitchfork Media.
ONE BE LO
I hate hype. Many rappers smacked with this label inevitably disappoint me...
RARE ESSENCE
"You know the crazy drum action on Amerie's 'One Thing'? It's that."
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GRANDMASTER CAZ
Grandmaster Caz, DJ/MC of the infamous Cold Crush Brothers, the crew that most...
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Sleepwalking/Unparalleled 12" Single
(Fat Beats Records)
4.5/5
Rea McNamara
I hate hype. Many rappers smacked with this label inevitably disappoint me. The Scarlet Letter-like status usually attests not to their lack of talent but rather to too many hip hop heads foaming in their mouths when their current flavor of the month pops up in conversation and you hear the oft-comment "Fuck man, you haven't heard this shit yet?"
So when I first started hearing about Detroit-based MC One Be Lo, I was steeling myself for the come-down. But when the needle dropped on "Sleepwalking", the lead single on his latest album S.O.N.O.G.R.A.M., and that great massive indescribable synth beat shook through my headphones, all defenses collapsed. I was blown, but the strange thing was that I still didn't get it. His words flew by me. It wasn't even the speed of his flow but the complexity of it. I found that the intelligence and genuinely conscious level of his rhymes didn't come out to me until the second or third play.
One Be Lo honors his underground roots with straight up words like "Every time I release plastic material you get a CD for 10 but I sign it for free" that make him a true rap poet. He has an eye for small details, and is an observer who ties in infectious cultural allusions with witty metaphors - that's deep. I fully include him in the whole Afrocentric, Conscious tradition. There's a little KRS here, a little Brand Nubians there, but it's not a fashion pose. When you hit the gospel-tinged bridge, he rallies the East and West coasts to 'Wake up!'. The man genuinely wants to save hip hop from commercial tendencies, and bring back that positive communal feel of the culture.
The only bad quip I can make against the much-deserved hype is that sometimes the beats and rhymes aren't cohesive, as heard on b-side "Unparalleled". Majestik Legend's production on the album version is all over the place, and the beats busyness detracts from words. I prefer the Decompoze remix, with its Bjork Homogenic-type of production vibe.
All in all when he relates that his songs and Trackezoid beats "go together like masturbation and ejaculation", you have to agree. One Be Lo is a talent and a vital part of the American underground scene, and he needs to be recognized for that.
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