The Last Drop

Schoolboy , Habits and Contradictions –  Gothic gangster rap at it’s finest. Lyrically a little weak, you can tell his age, but a strong initial concept and effort for an emerging crew of hip hop innovators. Where Section 80 presented consciousness in a mostly well packaged display, Habits exceeds in aurally mapping grit, danger, solitude, machismo, and anything else SchoolBoy wants to address. For a foundationally scary album, it’s a joy to listen to.

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Das Racist, Shut Up, Dude/ Sit Down, Man –  Hmmm…I suppose we were overdue for a renaissance in college trained rappers. Ever since Talib and Kanye dropped out, we haven’t heard mention of college tinged rhyming making a real dent in hip hop. If Vampire Weekend can take music by storm by marrying the ivy league with African rhythms, why not use this formula (nee gimmick) for hip hop? Thus the rise of Das Racist. What’s not to like about the concept – met at requisite liberal arts school, all minorities , fans of pop culture and obscure literature with a well developed elitist sense of humor (try not to chuckle about a Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell…)? A perfect storm for the indie world to embrace. Even if for a blink in time. Well, that blink has lasted much longer than anyone anticipated – I mean, these dudes were everywhere when I was in Austin, a good 2 years after Combo Pizza Hut blew up – and they seem poised to last even longer. And in spite of their presumptive, jerkishness, I may look forward to their next work if it follows suite from their two first efforts.

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As if it’s not enough to have a totally absurd movie that purports everything wrong with the American pension for mashups (read: cutting corners, being lazy, and other silliness), I had to go and get this stuck in my head. Luckily, I used this as an opportunity to share my culture with Guillermo. This is my youth.