| Lawrence’s iD and Sleeper are making hip-hop just the way I like it: raw, creative and intellectual. With Displacement the local duo emerges from the proverbial lab with an offering strong enough to perk up the ears of even the most jaded local hip-hop fans. If you’re not familiar with the difference between true hip-hop and what I call “hip-pop," let me lay it out in no uncertain terms. Top 40 radio and MTV are busy purveying rap artists whose main talent is to flash their rented jewelry while swimming through a seemingly endless skinsea of greasy dancing women, and spouting new slang terms to describe the same old antiquated egocentric themes. Conversely, in every city in the world you can find pockets of young men and women holed up in their bedrooms and basements, crafting unique electronic beat structures and powerful heartfelt lyrics with nothing more than a pen, a piece of paper, and a patchwork of home recording/ composition devices. iD and Sleeper are of this breed. If you are buying Displacement with the intent of finding a jam to bump in your “whip” with spinning chrome “shoes” and get “krunk” to while sipping your “pimp juice,” “up in the club,” “dropping it like it’s hot,” you are in for a disappointment. This is a record drenched in purpose and mature deliberation. Sleeper’s lo-fi beats and loops bounce between old school boom-bap playfulness, new school trip-hop creepiness, and no school experimental soundscapes. iD’s lyrics are conceptually dense and delivered effortlessly with surgical exactness. While most emcees are busy finding words that rhyme with “booty,” iD is busy contemplating larger truths and musing on what it means to be “a prophet, a poet, a shrink, a priest.” These two musicians work well together creatively, and the quality of that cohesion is evident in one of the best local releases in the short history of Lawrence hip-hop, period. - Lawrencian |
1XLP/Out Of Print