JB's Listenings Of The Week, 6/10-18/10

Organized Konfusion

Another of my "heard ofs" to check off the list. Organized Konfusion are generally reputed as one of the best and smartest hip hop acts of the 90s; 3 albums, two of them minor classics. Although admittedly I haven't given it full album time, I can't say they strike me as quite as brilliant as they get props for, but they're still top-shelf 90s hip hop. Pharoah Monch and Prince Poetry are both all-around great MCs - sharp lyrics and great flow - and the beats knock.






Veruca Salt

See last post for more details. Here's probably the best track from their debut LP, "American Thighs".



Jake One - "The Truth" (ft. Freeway & Brother Ali)

Following up from last week's pick, "The Stimulus Plan", I grabbed Jake's double-LP "White Van Music", which features a killer guestlist including DOOM, Elzhi, Casual and many more. This track is an undeniable highlight; the kind of slick, soul-based boom bap Jake excels at, and a perfect fit for both MCs. They're in great form here, Ali in particular - dropping plenty of those soulful melodic accents that characterize his flow.



Black Milk - "The Matrix" (ft. Pharoah Monch, Sean Price & DJ Premier)
Detroit producer/MC Black Milk is for my money one of the best producers working in hip hop today. His ridiculously hooky beats were half of what made Elzhi's knockout debut "The Preface", and his solo stuff holds up just as well. This track is from his 2006 album "Tronic", and features Organized Konfusion's Pharoah Monch, among others, spitting over a propulsive synth-driven beat. And if you doubted Milk's cred, that's Premo on the scratches.



Ghostface Killah - "Supreme Clientele"

Ghostface was one of the artists that got me into rap in the first place, and remains to this day one of my favorite MCs. He's got one of the most distinct styles in the game; a jumble of stream-of-consciousness ramble, vividly detailed storytelling, oddball humor, borderline absurd braggadocio, a million other things - all held together by a rough, idiosyncratic flow. On his second LP "Supreme Clientele", he's at his rawest, and it sounds great. His dense blocks of rhyme sound right at home over the grimy beats. And on a side note, fuck the haters, RZA can be a good MC when he's on.





Antipop Consortium - "Shopping Carts Crashing"

For a long time, I had heard of Antipop as sort of the furthest end of avant-garde hip hop, which I thought sounded great. "Shopping Carts Crashing" doesn't quite live up to that promise; it falls too often into the trap of "avant-garde hip hop" read as "choppy flows/noisy electronic beats". Nothing visionary. This aside, taken as Bomb-Squad-meets-Blade-Runner hip hop along the lines of El-P's work, it's solid stuff.