Review Summary: If only Raekwon delayed his newest another year, Plastique would be sitting on top of all of 2009's releases defecating
Plastique is a metaphysical journey as narrated by Sole and sonically juxtaposed via Skyrider's interpretations. Nearly a nihilistic anthem, the duo successfully encapsulates the darkness and travails of modern society into a less-than-double-digit track length LP, an unheard of undertaking for most of their contemporaries. Conceptually,
Plastique pulls no punches in criticizing capitalistic greed, war, and almost nearly every other questionable societal miscue; but what truly is mesmerizing is Skyrider's ability to pull this all together in one cohesive composition. Their experimental compositions combining soul, rock, blues, metal, and electronics really do much to reign in Sole's stream-of-consciousness, near spoken word flow; instead of meandering off into meaningless drivel, his verses instill an apocalyptic dread within you, until the bitter post-metal-esque crescendos of "Black". Compared to their self-titled debut, a lot has changed with respect to structure - again the final product here is a testament to cohesion and flow control, outclassing 2007's outing in every way and working wonders to mitigate Sole's oft-unrhyming, "eclectic" rapping throughout that release. Not to say the debut was mediocre in anyway; quite the contrary as its newer sibling works to streamline the same formula and only shines just a bit brighter.
This is easily one of the year's finest hip-hop ventures - if only Raekwon delayed his newest another year,
Plastique would be sitting on top of all of 2009's releases defecating. Seriously a modern marvel of songwriting, Sole and Skyrider have worked wonders incorporating almost all of hip-hop's past, present, and future timeline into one 50 minute package.
