Often we throw around the ascription of /musical genius/ callously. The phrase has become meaningless and impotent as a critique of sound and melody and technique. However, I argue here before you 20,000 that a group of immensely talented lyrical artists have emerged to reclaim the title from all those less deserving (“Really my niggas? Mozart?! Have you heard the Magic Flute? I’ll come at him with my see-through gat early!”—from an undocumented Nako interview.)
With a track listing that reads more like T.S. Elliot, *Team Scene*’s debut venture into the wasteland of contemporary popular music, “*Earth Girls Are Easy*,” explores the complete inventory of human experience with lyrical brilliance and refreshingly emotional sincerity. It refuses to acknowledge the proverbial death of hip-hop and asks us to party with its specter, or deeply converse with its ghost.
You sympathize when Chase Love’s southern drawl narrates a maternal elegy. You understand the importance of style when Nako rhymes of a lavish fashionista lifestyle. When B Nyce weaves obscure metaphors into innuendo, sexual arousal and hunger become indistinguishable…in a good way. And the album showcases several other artists that contribute in substantial ways vocally and creatively.
Nostalgic of hip-hop of old, we haven’t heard this quality of song formulation since Only Built 4 Cuban Linx in the summer of 1995. But in 2009, this ensemble of talented young musicians embeds a certain futuristic lyrical element within each verse. Simultaneously abstract yet blunt imagery such as “black and white guts looking like a Rorschach” allow Team Scene to construct a surrealist soundscape far ahead of its time. In fact, I must advise readers to listen to this album today but understand that it may be 2012 when you can understand content of these records....
I'll leave it up to you to give this album the 40,000 thumbs up it deserves
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