Keep an Eye on Zion I

Zion I are a hip hop duo from Oakland, California that build a foundation of fresh rhyme technique with innovative beat construction.

The duo is comprised of producer and DJ Amp Live, and MC Zion.The talented combination of Zion's poetic, positive, and socially conscious lyrics mixed with DJ Amp's unbelievably well tuned ear, make these two some of the most highly respected and acclaimed underground artists, and even though they have a mainstream fan base; they stay loyal to the message of universal respect for others and self. Their popularity grew from Amp's revolutionary production techniques, using a mix of live instrumentation and futuristic samples.

They made their first worldwide debut in 2000 with the critically acclaimed album, Mind Over Matter. The album was a blend of innovative beats, and rhythmical verse, which had everything from meeting sexy Arabian women overseas, to realizing that every choice we have in life has consequences; good and bad.

Mind Over Matter is more than just the introductory mark of Zion I; it is a lyrical construct of emotion, self awareness, and making the right choice. The duo doesn’t rap about money, materialism, or drugs; instead they focus on what is inside of people, their soul and the conscious.

This album is a must for any collection. The incredible tranquility this album creates with the intellect and ears is felt the very first time you listen; or the 100^th time for that matter.

Overall Rating:
5 out of 5 Fools Gold

Dilla Disects Drums in Donuts

Producer, rapper, and architect of amazing beats and hooks, artist Jay Dee laid the blueprints down for so many artists to sing over. Aside from a few scattered beats for Common and Medaphor, there hasn’t been a lot of new material put out by the same man who handcrafted numerous sounds for A Tribe Called Quest, Slum Village, D'Angelo, and from the man Pharrell, Kanye West, and Questlove have all hailed as the greatest producer.

The Detroit born Jay Dee, or J Dilla, created his last album, Donuts, shortly before his 32^nd birthday. J had been suffering from major health problems (he died on February 10, three days after his thirty-second birthday). In fact, Jay Dee made much of this record during an extended stay at the hospital, using original 45s, a Numark portable turntable and a Powerbook. The result is a forty-two-minute peek into J.Dilla's beat-tape sketchbook, as well as a lesson learned: Never mistake silence for laziness.

Donuts is one big pot full of mixed records. One track is longer than two minutes, several are less than one; records are chopped, flipped, sped up, slowed down and slapped together; there are vocal drops, noise drops, needle drops, obscure records, soul records, electric-company ads and all sorts of pirated sounds from samples he'd probably never clear. This is what you call a well-orchestrated mess.

If it sounds handcrafted, that's because it is. Dilla is the master of one instrument - the MPC drum machine - and this album serves as testimony that if you equipped him with a sampler and some dusty records, Dilla would use his God-gifted ear to cut, chop, and serve you up something brand new every time. There is nothing commercial about Donuts, and if it weren't for the vision of a label such as Stones Throw, this album might have ended up as just another Internet rumor.

Overall Rating:
4 out 5 Screwed Up Hooks

Mainstream Materialism is Killing the Tale

Hip-hop hopes are high, yet I think they’ll die.

With the decaying lyrical quality of the entire hip-hop genre, there are only a few artists whose words actually have a story to tell. The trivial racket that so many of today’s popular MC’s produce, lacks an abundance of important song characteristics; style, fluidity, prose, and most importantly, a point.

Although there are tons of respectable MC’s and rappers producing quality music regularly, there are only a handful of dynamic artists that rewrite the script on originality. (Here some hilarious charts explain what I mean by there are limited quality respectable artists.)

Lupe Fiasco falls right into this elite list of great lyricists, and his rapid delivery of words provide an interesting technique of combining slow, repetitive choruses, with insanely fast verses that somehow are easily understand but so hard to sing along with.

His most recent album, The Cool, is just that.

It’s an introspective story on Lupe’s life that fuses the real problems he’s experienced, along with the success and growth of his career, but still somehow tells an inventive tale of fantasy and fame.

The album has a two or three songs that wouldn’t be particularly appealing to the mainstream hip-hop audience, but the remaining are exceptionally well written, well produced, and basically a well performed story.

Go check this cool album out.

Overall Rating:
5 out of 5 FNF’s