Review Summary: Shinola
Boom-bap is dead. Long live trap beats! There can be no denying that Atlanta is the Mecca of rap music right now. As such, everyone is trying to get on a Luger beat, or a beat similar enough to a Luger beat to fool the masses into thinking you’ve crafted the next
Flockaveli. It’s hard to deny the power of this type of hip-hop- as user Urinetrouble once posted, it’s the ultimate “hyperkinetic dumb-out” music. I listen to trap rappers for the same reason I listen to hardcore punk: to get hyped, to in-turn
maximize my pump. But my first love will always be that Northeast Coast boom-bap. Enter FatGyver, a producer from Helsinki, Finland, a country perhaps best known musically for producing some of the most truly excellent punk and hardcore bands of the 80s and early 90s. FatGyver is a voodoo shaman with an Akai MPC, a producer fiercely loyal to the traditional Philadelphia/New York boom-bap style. His debut LP,
Talk To Strangers is perhaps one of the most significant beat tapes of this genre released in the past half-decade, or more.
Right from the get-go, it’s clear that FatGyver does things a bit differently. First off,
Talk To Strangers clocks in at a sub-forty minute runtime. Typically these types of “backpacker” hip-hop albums are overstuffed with content, making them tepid, sallow-faced affairs. This is not an issue for FatGyver’s album, as the songs never overstay their welcome. Conversely, there are a few tracks on here you may find yourself wishing were
increased in length. Whereas other boom-bap producers may fall into corny sampling tendencies (looking at you, 9th Wonder), or simply veer too far into hero-worship (Icerocks biting El-P’s late-90s style), Fatgyver manages to keep a clear head about him, which gives his music a refreshing amount of base. The organic quality of the basslines he uses, seguing with rapid-fire precision from the bouncy, old-school G-Funk-inspired licks as displayed on “Priorities,” to the East Coast flavors of the aptly-titled “New York,” showcasing an impressive amount of versatility. “Interror Design” has a focal point based around a lumbering, almost Middle-Eastern vibe, and is one of the finest examples that even as his samples get eccentric, FatGyver never tunnel visions into the blasé tropes that most modern boom-bap producers more often than not find themselves swaying towards.
“Talk To Strangers,” the only track on the LP with actual rapping, is worked masterfully by Raw Poetic and Blu. Raw Poetic ditches the occasionally whacky-experimentalism of his solo material, instead choosing to do what he does best: cerebral braggadocios, with multi-syllabic wordplay. Blu also competently holds it down with his brief appearance on the mic- any fan of his work with Exile would feel right at home listening to his bars on the title-track. “Sharkitekt,” another album highlight, is developed around a swirling, spiraling piano lick, that changes up to a menacing, mid-tempo one- FatGyver’s official knockout blow. “Sampladelphia,” the longest track on the album, is built upon a simple, shimmery guitar chord progression, before kicking into full on high gear grooviness, coming across as the type of beat Royal Flush or Lord Finesse may have once rapped over.
FatGyver is an exceptional young producer.
Talk To Strangers has been released by New Jersey-based avant-garde hip-hop label Redefinition Records, and it is already one of the best records in their extremely progressive, varied, and completely off-the-hook-quality discography. Time will tell if FatGyver can become a backpacker force, or if he can make the transition to the mainstream, while injecting some much-needed lifeblood into the stagnant North American boom-bap scene. Regardless of how big he gets, the kid has an ear for good hip-hop, and he’s working with the right people. Highly recommended.
"Don't trust whitey..."
