Underrated / Underhated #4
Underrated: Wordsworth – Mirror Music
Who the hell knew that Wordsworth had a good LP in him? Not us. After hearing the first few outings from Punch & Words, his tag team with Punchline, on the likes of ‘Lyricist Lounge’, we’d already dismissed him and his buddy as a pair of puddle-shallow rhymers. They seemed to specialise in those quotables you can see coming a mile off, with a pause for effect afterwards rather like that dreadful ‘Kill at will, solid water, Ice Cube’ explanation line fom Jay-Z. It seemed smug. Well, ‘Mirror Music’ is the opposite of that. It’s a mature, intelligent rap album that deals with relationships, community, growing up and more besides. Yeah, we know we adore ignorant rap music, but we can get down to something more soulful too, and this has soul in spades. The production is distinctly 2nd or 3rd tier – Ayatollah, Sebb, Oddisee, Curt Gowdy – but most of them deliver fine work, tracks rinsed with soul loops like a more kinetic 9th Wonder, all idealfor underpinning Wordsworth’s unusually honest lyrics. Unsurprisingly, the only lull comes when Punchline arrives on the scene for ‘Not Fair’. Where’s your great solo album, Punchy? Yeah, thought so…
Wordsworth – Guardian Angel
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Wordsworth – Be A Man
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Underhated: Kool G Rap & DJ Polo – Live and Let Die
Once, we had nothing but love for the Kool Genius of Rap. That was during his first two LP’s, two for two on classic status. The lisping king of speed rhyming over dope production could do no wrong. Until, that is, he decided he was going to be a crime rhymer. G Rap seems to have taken the praise for ‘Streets of New York’ the wrong way. We were all impressed by it as a moving homage to a troubled city sitting on an album of freestyle frenzy. He seems to have taken it as ‘we like it when you rap about crime’ because that’s all he’s done ever since, to miserable effect. This album has its moments, but whoever told him to (or failed to dissade him from) record ‘Still Wanted Dead or Alive’ needs garotting. That shit is weak in comparison. Sir Jinx offers nice beats, but G Rap’s dreadful crime narratives make you realise how good Ice Cube was at the time. As G Rap segued from a brag rapper with a sideline in stories to a storyteller with an occasional sideline in brag rapping, we stopped listening. Or rather, we kept listening in anguish. We’re glad his LP on Rawkus didn’t see the light of day – it was probably shit, just like ‘Roots of Evil’, ‘The Giancana Story’ and, for heaven’s sake, ‘Click of Respect’. We realise most 80′s rappers fade, but he’d faded by this, his 3rd, mysteriously underhated LP. Listen, Nathaniel Wilson: you’re not Italian, and you’re not in the Mafia. Now get into the Fat Lace time machine – Large Professor and Ant Live are waiting inside for you…
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo – Still Wanted Dead or Alive
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Kool G Rap & DJ Polo – Train Robbery
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9 Responses to "Underrated / Underhated #4"
G Rap album has one of the best covers of all time though, didn’t you guys copy it in one of your issues?
LOL. Jay Z’s infamous telegraphed Ice Cube line really is one of the most cringeworthy lines ever.
Sorry fatlace, I frickin love you guys, but you seem to have made a terrible mistake here – operation cb – edge of sanity – letters – on the run – ill street blues……..The only problem was the drool tip-exed onto the dogs mouth’s on the cover artwork but otherwise a fine moment from Mr Wilson
We’ll give you Operation CB and Ill Street Blues. But that doesn’t an album make
Two To The Head too.
‘G Rap + ‘Cube + Scarface + Mommy, What’s A Funkadelic? sample = greatness.
Live and Let Die is dope. Fat Lace gets the gas face.
And Ayatollah is a great producer, by the way.
Operation CB is a classic, I think there was even another version westwood used to play? Anyone remember that?..
Even though they’re always highly touted, I was actually not a big fan of Jinx’s beats in general …at least when compared to the material G Rap had previously. “Ill Street Blues,” “Operation CB” and “Letters” were cool, though. And there’s a nice appearance by Big Daddy Kane. But yeah, in general I agree. The whole “G Rap meets West Coast gangster rap” was the epic union I didn’t need to see.
I have to say, though, he elevated the lyrics of his crime raps in later years… listen to something like his collabo with Chino XL, “Let ‘Em Live.” It’s all mafioso content, but he KILLS it (I wouldn’t mind a version with Chino edited out, though; because he gets massively outclassed).
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