IDM Mailing Archive

quoted 7 lines uh... I think you guys are supposed to freestyle over the top of it !

>> uh... I think you guys are supposed to freestyle over the top of it ! >> Well I passed on the instrumentalyst too. Its just not the same without >> the amazing flow and wordplay. btw there are one or two sexually >> explicit tracks, most of the Octagon album is space, medicine and >> chemistry. The best hip hop album in many years IMHO. > > Don't believe the hype.

actually, _nation of millions_ came out in '88, so this might still work. _might_, except that a virtually unknown lyricist by the name of saafir put out a record entitled _boxcar sessions_ on the quest label in '94 that, to my ears, comes closest to actually _deserving_ the honor of that title. saafir was homeless for a couple of years in oakland and san francisco, and much of his writing reflects his experiences on the street, from fear, isolation, and mental illness, to the cursed inevitability of the drug trade in the ghetto (as below), etc. the doc is good, but he ain't _this_ good. sick, sick fractured lyricism that play havoc with rhyme schemes like black dog does with time signatures. a sample: now that i have a deep dish/spoon niggas be attackin'/get blackened eyes like racoons blew up like balloons/busted, they're getting rusted, thrusted with them screwdrivers/who's the livest--me! and i love it when the/slug rubs another from a rusty life/they, uh, couldn't cut it so i/cut 'em with my trusty knife skinned alive/and when deprived of one's life one thinks twice/three times a lady lionel couldn't pay me/or you to fade me 'cuz i be learnin' shit/makin' tourniquets for broken english/i'm yokin the seamstress cuz i'm/sewin' up shit --saafir, "swig of the stew" i hear a lot of people complain (myself included) about _dr. octagon_ bein' a pretty good experimental hip-hop album, except the lyricism and rhyming just ain't there. with _boxcar_, they're there...top to bottom. to boot, jay-z's production is easily as inventive as any of the mo'wax/ninja tune/pussyfoot headfunk, all thick beats, dense arrangements, and artfully fused instrumental samples that make dj shadow look a few yards less innovative by comparison. qbert colleague dj apollo (big up west coast rsc!) runs the cuts on _boxcar_ which means solid, inventive scratching as well. apologies for a post that might be better suited to alt.music.rap, but with all the irresponsible rock crit adulation that dr. octagon record has been getting since year's end (don't get me wrong, it's a good record! i bought it the day it came out after picking up the "earth people" single a few weeks earlier, but...), i thought it appropriate to sing the praises of a much lesser-known artist who's work is in many respects much better than keith a co.'s. imho, of course... sc