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…if you got soul

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3 years ago
by Jerry in , ,


Title: Deepspace5oul
Artist: Beat Rabbi & Deepspace5
Label: Illect Recordings
Length: 22 Tracks / 63:21

Have you ever wanted to time travel? Do you love relevant, conscious, thinking-man’s hip-hop? If you answered “YES!” to both of those questions, Beat Rabbi and Deepspace5 have concocted the perfect cure for your ailments in the form of their late-2007 Illect Recordings release cleverly entitled Deepspace5oul.

Made up of 22 tracks, about 10 of which are interludes (some are short songs, some are instrumental) – the record is jam-packed with more Deepspace5 than you can handle. Recorded during the summer of 2003 prior to their sophomore release Unique, Just Like Everyone Else, Deepspace5oul is a blast from the past equivalent to the manic time-travel episodes of Bill Watterson’s classic serialized comic strip Calvin & Hobbes. The album gives us an unique presentation of the DS5 crew since it is the only release to feature singular production. Where all other DS5 releases have featured production from DJ Dust and Manwell, as well as rappers Fred Bruno, Playdough, and others (highlighting the multi-disciplinary talent of the crew), Beat Rabbi handles all of the beats on this project with only supplementary scratching and the like from others.

Thus, Deepspace5oul is an interesting side-release of the crew that highlights the excellent sounds coming out of Rabbi’s lab as well as sharing some circa-2004 raps from the crew. This is a remarkable listening experience for any fan of the group; the lyrics are excellent as always, and you can really hear by contrast just how much some of the guys’ vocals have improved since then. It’s a study in improvement and change, in that sense.

Musically, Rabbi sends up some of his best work ever on Deepspace5oul, sampling and fusing extensively from sounds such as soul, jazz, funk, and breaks – harking back to that classic (and rightly so) 1990′s rap sound. Sonically, the album traverses a wide landscape of areas – from full horn sections tickling your subconscious (“Deepspace 5oul”) to brilliant vocal tracks forming the backbone of a beat (“Beautiful”) to amazing bassline-driven rhythms (“On A Side Note”), Deepspace5oul is an exercise in production excellence. It’s plain that much time and thought and perfectionism was focused on this project, and the results are quite frankly thrilling.

Lyrically, the DS5 crew brings it as tight as they always have. Hearing new-to-us verses from almost 5 years ago is a very interesting experience, as it not only highlights the great strides of improvement made since (which has already been mentioned), but also just how amazing DS5 was even prior to that forward progress. Most notable is when the difference isn’t really even in the realm of “improvement” but of just plain difference – see The Listener’s verses, which definitely sound much more akin to his more traditional Whispermoon and The Night We Called It A Day style than to his present manifestation as heard and enjoyed on Ozark Empire or Return to Struggleville. Overall, between the shiny verses and the smart choruses, there’s food-for-thought and phonetic wonder here for weeks of repeated listens.

With the recent release of Bake Sale (an EP by DS5 standards at 10 tracks) and Greatest Beats & Unreleased (a b-sides and beat record), both in 2008, as well as 2009′s soon-coming and much-anticipated third album The Future Ain’t What It Used To Be, it’s becoming clearer than ever that Deepspace5 is one of rap’s undisputed supernovas of talent and an incredible machine that churns out hip-hop happiness in a way few other crews could ever hope to come near.

Deepspace5oul is a blast from the past that seems carefully designed from the top down to remind us that Deepspace5 pumps out quality, mind-and-heart-blowing hip-hop not only in the present and future, but the past as well. If you love rap and time-travel, you owe it to yourself to pick this puppy up and let it explore your soul with sound.

5 Souls out of 5.

Standout Tracks: Deepspace 5oul, Beautiful, On A Side Note, Double Dog Dare You, Downtown Connects, Say Yeah.

Jerry Bolton – for The Phantom Tollbooth.
January 10, 2009

…noctournal beats in my headphones now

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4 years ago
by Jerry in , ,

Title: Night Owls 4: A Shot In The Dark
Artist: Various
Label: Syntax Records
Length: 20 Tracks / 69:57

This is what compilation records should be.

For somewhere closing in on a decade now, Syntax Records has made a name for themselves by becoming synonymous with positive, quality underground hiphop. The Night Owls series of compilations is in many ways their showcase piece: collections of tracks recorded specifically for these compilation by members of

Syntax’s label roster as well as other significant members of the underground hiphop community.

Night Owls 4, the fourth (surprise!) in the series, consists of twenty songs, only one of which might be called an “interlude”, and it’s a very excellent DJ cut. Thirty (plus) emcees, showcasing most of Syntax Records’ roster (ie. Braille, Kaboose, RedCloud, Man of War), but also a handful of other non-Syntax talent such as Manchild from Mars Ill, Listener from Deepspace 5, and CookBook & UNO Mas of L.A. Symphony. Top it off with a handful of DJ’s and producers and you have a recipe for greatness.

Reviewing compilation records such as this one is difficult for one primary reason: the variety. There’s no one emcee rapping on every track, nor is there one producer behind the boards, nor one DJ scratching up a storm. Rather, you have a multiplicity of all of the above.

So first, some generalizations about the entire album:

The recipe works – Night Owls 4 is excellent. Every track on the album is exclusive to it and you won’t see them anywhere else. This is not a collection of songs from albums you might already own, nor is it a bunch of second rate b-sides or demos. This is a collection of rap songs from some of the positive underground hiphop community’s best, many of whom are at the top of their game right this moment. Additionally, Night Owls 4 boasts a variety of producers on the record, which ensures a wide variety of sounds. Consistently, regardless of style, the beats are on point.

So, now that I’ve told you that the compilation is great, here are some of my more pointed thoughts:

    Some of the tracks are quite a bit better than others. My own preferences are listed below.

  • It’s great to see the return of old-school supercrew “thePride” (Recon and Sintaxtheterrific from Deepspace 5, and Manchild from Mars ILL). I don’t think they’ve done a new track since 2001′s On Def Ears). They absolutely nail their track.
  • I’ve never been much of a RedCloud fan, but his track “21 Jump Street” converted me all by itself.
  • Listener’s track “Older Than I Was Before” features some of the best socio/religio-political commentary I’ve heard in a rap song in quite some time.
  • The choir samples on Cookbook & UnoMas’ track “Always Shine” win for best-in-album and makes for an incredible beat.

Four deep bass beats out of five.

Standout Tracks: For You, Always Shine, We Will Not Stop, Knuckle Up, Older Than I Was, Test Market, 21 Jump Street.

Jerry Bolton
01/16/08

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