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Picked up Buck 65's latest "20 Odd Years". I saw him in '04 without knowing anything about him. It was neat. Picked up a couple albums back then, but I actually don't really remember them now.
This 2011 album is pretty cool. Very dynamic. It's what I expected out of rap before I understood rap: the delivery is rap/spoken/whatever but the songs actually chart a course and aren't just a looped beat. There's variation, buildup, pacing. It's closer to songwriting than beat poetry. Guest vocalists are integrated fully and aren't just there for a hook or two. It really sounds collaborative.
There's a cool track "Cold Steel Drum" where this Feist-ish vocalist Jenn Grant takes the lead in driving the song forward with some nice melodies with Buck 65 punctuating with some rhymes; when the music swells and the climax of the tune comes, Buck 65 takes over and brings it home. Very nice.
This 2011 album is pretty cool. Very dynamic. It's what I expected out of rap before I understood rap: the delivery is rap/spoken/whatever but the songs actually chart a course and aren't just a looped beat. There's variation, buildup, pacing. It's closer to songwriting than beat poetry. Guest vocalists are integrated fully and aren't just there for a hook or two. It really sounds collaborative.
There's a cool track "Cold Steel Drum" where this Feist-ish vocalist Jenn Grant takes the lead in driving the song forward with some nice melodies with Buck 65 punctuating with some rhymes; when the music swells and the climax of the tune comes, Buck 65 takes over and brings it home. Very nice.