5. Your Old Droog
Your Old Droog
Beyond the hullabaloo that teased that Your Old Droog might be a cheeky secret side-project from one Nasir Jones, the newcomer's debut 10-track EP-turned-album impressed by dint of one simple virtue: The kid from Coney Island can rap his ass off. Fusing a lubrication-smooth flow with a nasally and nicotine-stained timbre, Your Old Droog rips through rhymes over production that bubbles with a funky swagger. Welcome to Droog's world.
4. Pharoahe Monch PTSD
The former Organized Konfusion mic commander has always possessed a keen eye for concepts, but his fourth solo project channeled his expansive thoughts into a beguiling body of work. Embracing the overriding topic of how stress in its many forms runs through society and daily life, Monch drops canny commentary while never tempering his razor-sharp flow. Impressively, as the album progresses it moves from a brooding and often torturous opening tone to a finale that's swaddled in a lightness of being. Consider it your personal rap therapy session.
3. Skyzoo and Torae Barrel Brothers
Representing live from the Planet, Skyzoo and Torae's first full-length collaboration was pitched with an overt manifesto: "I don't make music for Fader/I make mine for the guys that grew up how I came up." Naturally, what follows is a taut trip through the burly Brooklyn the rappers call home, with robust flows being dropped over concrete-solid production. It all adds up to a proud hometown mission statement.
2. Bishop Nehru and MF Doom NehruvianDOOM
There's a good few decades between the New York City-raised (but now exiled-in-London) MF Doom and the upstate-residing Bishop Nehru, but listening to their hip-hop tryst, it's as if they've been plugged in to the same creative zone all along. The formula here is simple: Doom produces, Bishop raps, and on occasion the curmudgeonly supervillain with the "Brillo Pad beard" also deigns to grab the mic, but it's the duo's shared off-kilter sensibility that gels the listening experience. And when they team up for the positivity-packed ''Great Things'' ," it's as if Doom has temporarily let his mask drop to embrace a nostalgic revisiting of the original K.M.D. vibe. <a
All hail Homeboy Sand. A literal mainstay of the New York City underground scene since the days when he was plastering the 7 train with his stickers, 2014 began with the Queens-raised rapper continuing his excellent run of EP releases with the Paul White-produced White Sands project before climaxing with his creative opus Hallways. Sparked by a perky interpolation of a Boogie Down Productions anthem on the opening song "1, 2, 3," the 12-track project charms like a svelte and smartly sequenced album of yore, with Boy Sand dipping into Big Apple sociology and spirituality during the mid-section, becoming smitten with a girl who "know all the words to O.C.'s 'Time's Up,' " and culminating with a trio of some of the most delicate and feathery rap songs you'll ever experience. At times Boy Sand's tricksy raps seem like they're about to take a stream-of-consciousness turn into a cul-de-sac, but the skilled lyricist always slips out through a secret conceptual side entrance. Hallways is simply the sound of a master rap writer at work.
0 comments:
Post a Comment