I can’t even lie to the readers, I heard of Count Bass D the exact same way that everyone else did. Through one of
MM… Food?’s biggest highlights in the form of “Potholderz”, we saw an MC who could hold his own with DOOM, bouncing a weird-ass flow and bizarre rhyme schemes, and mechanizing a beat with some of the grooviest bass lines out there. It was the closest thing to G-Funk DOOM would ever ride, and probably one of the best songs in his catalog. Through that, I heard of his album,
Dwight Spitz, and assuming it would be sort of similar to the instrumental and lyrics of “Potholderz”, I bought it. Now I realize it’s not as good as “Potholderz”, it’s beyond it.
Count Bass D’s love for exotic funk and bass lines is continued on
Dwight Spitz, but it’s much more psychedelic here. The production is very odd, fragmented MPC sampling and hard hitting drums that at first represent 90s New York rap, but goes into their own bizarre tangents. Songs range from a couple of seconds to over three minutes, jaded and made into songlets in the same way that
Madvillainy would be. The beats sort of weave into each other, soothingly dissolving into dream-like motions, once in a while interceded with vocal samples in the same way Premier would, albeit altered in a way that fuses it to Count D’s own obscure agenda.
That being said, The Count really doesn’t rhyme that much on here.
Dwight Spitz doesn’t really give much room for his underrated rhyming abilities, instead sweeping funk samples and guests run across the album, doing his production justice. Despite that, Count Bass D still sounds excellent. He’s just as flat out weird as DOOM, at places sounds a bit like GZA, and remains kind of conscious of his surroundings and introduces street-ness despite that. Count Bass drops some really good rhymes whenever he appears (“Three Loves Three hearts, let’s smoke together then Wine all night/ rhyme not fight/ love him, not Dwight”), but his lack of appearances is not much of a factor.
In fact, the guests aren’t really that much of a big part (although DOOM’s solo song is epic). They are just pieces of
Dwight Spitz sound. Listening to individual songs off this is like listening to 30 second snippets of a regular song, just something not to do.
Dwight Spitz is album for an album lover, something increasingly rare in hip hop. That’s why 2002’s
Dwight Spitz is a record worthy of your attention.
