Reviews

Wrote a few more reviews for real groove this month. Get the mag here. Chur Sam Wicks

Murs and 9th Wonder - Fornever ***


Your favourite rapper's favourite rapper.

When I grow up I want to be just like Murs. This guy could show Jeff Lebowski how to be a dude. You know Bishop Don Juan? He's Murs' wing man. Seriously. Murs can make anything sound cool. On 'The Lick' he makes a trip to the shop to get a snickers and a sprite sound like something Ice Berg Slim wrote. On 'Live From Roscoes' he takes you to a broken down food bar on a street full of potholes and orders a plate full of beans and rice and your mouth starts to water. He even manages to rhyme about lung cancer and cirrhosis of the liver on 'Cigarettes and Liquor' without sounding like an advert in a bus stop. That's pretty cool. But 'Vikki Veil' is easily the coolest song on the album. A real life story about being dumped by a porn star. 'She broke my heart now I'm making it public / never let your dick pick who you fall in love with'. How fucking cool is that? An intelligent, chain smoking vegetarian who can rap. You gota love him. But who's that tall alien looking dude with the massive cheek bones he's always with? ... Oh ... He makes the beats? ... Oh yeah, he's aite.

Revolutions Per Minute ***

I'd still rather listen to this.

Nothing lasts forever. Just ask Nas (about his marriage) It's been 10 years since Hi Tek and Talib Kweli made their classic album 'Train of Thought' and the honey moon period is over. These days Talib just sits around with his book club buddys talking politics while Hi Tek is stuck in the studio all day slaving over a hot MPC. Hi Tek's still trying to make the relationship work though. And it does on some songs. Like 'Ballad of the Black Gold' where Talib is sonically as beautiful as the first day Hi Tek heard him and 'Lifting Off' where he is lyrically bringing roses home after work. It's songs like 'In The Red' and 'So Good' that lack that first date chemistry however. Talib keeps rambling on about battle rap and Hi Tek's just pretending to care. They sound like Al and Peg Bundy. Then on 'Just Begun' Hi Tek's beat sounds like it's checking out Talib's friends J-Cole and Jay Electronica who make him sound like an abusive husband. It's no love at first sight. But every relationship has its ups and downs and this one is definitely still worth working on. Talib just needs to pay his partner a bit more attention.


Ghost, Rae and Meth - Wu Massacre ***


Yeah i know this ain't on the album. That's what I'm saying

Let's be honest, it's not 1993 anymore. You can jump around with 50 of your friends on a giant chess board waving machetes all day long and people will just walk right past you. They've seen it all before. Nobody cares about kung fu now. They do Zumba. They don't want to hear about the links you have with Cuba. They've just been to Thailand. And they definitely don't want to buy a perfectly crafted balance of lyricism and production. They've already got 36 Chambers. And that's pretty much all you can say about this album. It's like a heroine addict's second taste. It's dope. But it's been done before. Still. Anything worth doing is worth overdoing right? So this album's still definitely worth listening to. There are definitely some classic Wu moments in it, like Rae rhyming about what brand gun he uses specifically for when he's in Chicago and Ghost painting a picture of a karate taking Latino hooker. Then of course there's Meth's pin point delivery and flow mixed with that cool teeth sucking thing he does in between breaths. You gota love that. That never gets old. So for those who say that once you've seen one burning barrel in an alleyway, you've seen them all, I say fuck that. Wutang is forever. God.