Mudkids - Basmentality
www.myspace.com/mudkids - $$$(1/2)
Dig-Dug Hip-Hop
Review by - Angelica LeMinh
It always ceases to amaze me when I come across hip-hoppers who manage the feat fusing humility and irony. With the title of this joint, we can deduce that the breakdown of “base mentality” is to be read as one that is getting back to basics, as in something created with the love of that from your basement that is mental with vitality.
The beats are all true, basic head nodders, and the themes are nothing groundbreaking (battle raps, cocky guarantees of getting your girl, industry commentary, lifestyle, and getting the party started) but their exploration and delivery are nothing to be slept on. Tracks like Alchohol and Testosterone go a little bit deeper and echo all kinds of promises of things to come.
“Basically”, the Mudkids came to ball like their home team (and if you haven’t heard the remix or seen the video they made for the Colts, Youtube “Anthem” this second, I’ll wait for you) and they open the album slanging. I was privy to this track in the summer, but the metaphors that prove Rusty’s status as a seasoned veteran are timeless. He may be “a Libra and sometimes an asshole”, but he is undeniably a worthy wordsmith, rattling off metaphors faster than you can count celebrity adoptions of African babies. Here’s just a small sampling: “you’re the Silvers, I’m the Jackson Five”, “I’m nuclear fission, you’re double A’s”, and my favorite, “I’m Supercat, you’re Snow”.
Russ is definitely the Gucci (Ok, I can’t give it all to you, cop the album!). “Even as a grown man, he still b-boy”, and his spirit of jest is clever and pronounced, as he’s the guy you love to get beat by, because he’s your big brother pushing you to get better. It takes a real man to remember that in a cipher, but don’t mistake the kindness for a weakness because he will set you in your place and have you “looking to God like Ma$e after Double Up”.
Rusty is nothing if not opinionated, so when it comes to the state of the world of hip-hop, I’m glad to recruit folks who refuse to cosign on its death. “Who got the real hip hop? It’s all around me”. He throws out a dope homage in JMJ and in the interest of paying respects to the pioneers, reminds us that there rest folks whose elite are “not Jay and Nas but Run D and Jay”.
On the topic of Rock & Roll, he “stands out like Mutumbo in Chinatown”, and continues on the rock and hop (more sides of a versatile coin) tip (and the punching of stereotypes in the face tip) with Heavy Metal Parking Lot, though the purple reign in me would’ve really loved it he somehow made this quote into the segue it should’ve been, “I’m Eric Clapton when I’m tappin’, I’m making you cream”. (It could’ve been Prince, Wu-Tang…but I digress.)
It’s clear that Rusty wants “a rock and roll chick in the hood”, though something tells me that she will always be there for him and that he’s not too proud to tell the world that he still loves h.e.r. The couple has been through a lot, but he reminisces about how he met her when he was “fourteen, (and she) walked differently from any girl he’d ever seen”, tough times, “in spite all the changes, “she’s just too young for you”, from day one she drove him crazy, he been her fool, “even stations with the program, they even tried to put my girl in the middle of slow jams”, and fidelity/dealing with her other admirers, “battle over her honour, all I need is one mic, told my girl we’d be best friends for life…I put it in sync and Justin loves her too”.
There are times when Indiana sounds like the Bay, with the low growling flow and ridiculous wordplay, “I destroy your game and your libido, you’re a character actor, leave that to Don Cheadle, I’m the big dog, you’re a beagle”. He continues with the Outkast and Quannum’s Lateef the Truthspeaker’s entries to the “cooler than…” cannon on Foresight which seems to be an appropriate point to stop this review (in the interests of bookeneding with irony) with one last brilliant view on optimism, “like Eve in a Dcup-half full”
