“Hey you with the natural hair
I’m gonna stop the beat, look at you, and stare
You got a passionate flair
And you look like your vagina could capture a bear”
With lyrics like this, allegedly spoken in character by someone celebrating their 4th birthday, you know this isn’t the hip-hop you’re going to see in Sprite commercials, but something so much better. Open Mike Eagle‘s Art Rap After Party (Mush) basically labels his music as “art rap”, but it’s the after party, so are we partying because it’s a good and great thing, or because it’s over? Are we celebrating its life or death, and how does a vagina capture a bear?
This is the follow up to the Unapologetic Art Rap album, so perhaps it is a celebration. Maybe not that of the genre, but of the unpredictable nuttiness Open Mike Eagle does because to me, it’s great. Abstract, weird, different, but always on the money, even though the man may be broke. His view of what hip-hop is today is not only funny but true, as heard in “Everybody’s Birthday”, where it seems everyone is either celebrating or going to an endless party.
It’s not someone being arty just to be arty, nor is it “alternative hip-hop” as people want to call this, it’s just something different, and yet being different in hip-hop has always been about being “anything *but* hip-hop” but that’s bullshit. This EP may be only five songs, but the content will make you agree and listen to other music and artists with a different perspective. He’s that guy who is always in the corner, maybe not nodding his head but observing and taking notes. Now it’s time to look and listen to his notation. - This Is Books Music |
