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Undistorted Views (through rose-tinted lenses)

Slaughterhouse


I gave up on 'Rap' some years ago for a combination of reasons which all retrospectively seem to point towards my seeming accelerating age.
That said, I still listen to the Rap music from 'my day' and prior whilst attempting to remain open minded to the new stuff, but I cant help but feel like Rap music reached its peak about 5 years ago and the newer stuff is regurgitated carbon copy music. Substance went out of Rap a long time ago and that's fine, most music starts with good intention and develops into something else as demand presents money making opportunity.

Based upon my ears being tuned into alternate stations, it's no surprise that much of the current work bypasses the Dj Realm radar. I stay in touch up to a point.

Today I discovered Slaughterhouse thanks to Talib Kweli's Twitter. I respect Talib and he said Slaughterhouse are dope, so I thought I'll give it a go most especially as he had mentioned other 2009 releases of high quality including Sa-Ra and Maxwell - therefore he and I are on some sort of similar wavelength.
The name Slaughterhouse indicates a not so fluffy musical direction. Fine by me.
Turns out Slaughterhouse is a group formed of Royce Da 5'9'', Joell Ortiz, Joe Budden and Crooked I. All of the above artists have style, experience and undeniable ability in their own rights - whether you like them or not (and I for one never bothered listening to Joe Budden much or Crooked I for that matter. But Joell Ortiz and Royce are both awesome, by anyones standards.

The album hits hard, yes its aggressive but it's full of beats that scream that Slaughterhouse weren't looking for the generic formula and of course the lyrics, whilst 'gansta' are well written and delivered with fury.
Yes, it's full of your 'Ho', 'Bitch', 'N...' and the usual terms associated with Rap music. This isn't Hip Hop, it's Rap and designed to get you hyped...and it works. It's the first Rap album I've enjoyed in a while, for all of the wrong reasons, but it is what it is. I for one was entertained.

Spotify URL (paste this in your Spotify search): spotify:album:3to46oYyRXJq3TPZNr7MVk

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, I am kinda new in rap, listen to it like one year, so i've been interested with first paragraph, can you suggest me some albums that represents that peak? I wana fulfill my rap knowledge base

1 September 2009 at 23:16  
Realm said...

Hey, thanks for the comment and it's a good question... when Rap was at it's peak before its decline(I mean RAP, not Hip Hop, they are different), albums such as: Busta Rhymes - Genesis, Nas - Stillmatic, Jay-Z - Dynasty Roc La Familia, Jadakiss - Kiss tha game goodbye...
Im not saying this were the best ever Rap albums, but they represent the last wave of good Rap in the last few years, in my opinion...

2 September 2009 at 17:19  
207um said...

Decent review... except you're missing out on a lot of great releases by writing off hip-hop altogether since 2003. And it peaked earlier than that, by the way... It was definitely pre-2000 when the average ability and quality was at its highest.

8 September 2009 at 05:17  

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