INDIE HIPHOP MAKES ITS WAY THROUGH GAINESVILLE
In a town made musically famous by ska, Simon's and Tom Petty, lately hip-hop has made a case for itself as a plethora of indie and underground heroes have made their way through Gainesville.
Following the bus of A-Trak, The Roots, Atmosphere, and Mr. Dibbs, and Run-DMC, Mush Records brings their virtual label showcase to Common Grounds Tuesday. The show features performances by Labtekwon, cLOUDDEAD, Radioinactive, Boom Bip & Doseone.
Doseone, who performs solo as well as with cLOUDDEAD discussed writing songs and going on tour.
cLOUDDEAD has gained massive critical acclaim the last few months for their self-titled album complied from 10-inch records the band has released since 1998.
"We wanted the glory of something limited," Doseone said of the outfit's peculiar choice for release style. Hopefully, when they do the same thing for their next album (which will be ready for release soon), they will again release a CD version also that those unfortunate souls without a turntable can check out the tunes as well.
On first listen, the latest cLOUDDEAD album sounds like a mish-mash of lo-fi sampling, underproduced beats and rambling MCs. On the second listen, it becomes clear that while the beats do trudge along, never getting to hard or fast, the production, simple as it may sound, is disgustingly deep.
Samples come from all places and run through every bit of the songs, including one frightening (especially at 3am) section of track six which is reminiscent of the orgy scenes of "Eyes Wide Shut."
The MCing sometimes sounds like too much nonsense bullshit at once, but, as listeners sift through it, it makes sense.
"We'll sit and write a series of poems, sometimes together and sometimes not," Doseone said. "But I think we're more cohesive together."
The "we" refers to the rest of the group, odd nosdam and why?, who MC and contribute as much as Doseone.
The fact this is poetry, and not lyrics written for a party song (or any other sort of song for that matter), explains a lot. It also makes the lyrics worth reading, even when the record isn't playing at the same time.
STEVEN FELLER