Jesse
Dangerously
"How to Express Your Dissenting Political
Viewpoint Through Origami" 2CD
Backburner
Recordings
Genres: hip-hop
email the
artist
Nov 15 - 21 2004 |
The track "Brainstorm", on Party Fun Action Committee's
highly underrated Let's Get Serious, does a bang-up job of
making rappers like Jesse Dangerously look like idiots.
Featuring Aesop Rock's beatmaker Blockhead as a lisping
Wyoming nerd-rapper who delivers such gems as "I speak the
philosophies of 1833/I see Moses part the sea/I see Hercules lift the
world/I've seen the fallopian structure of a squirrel", it is a
fine example of this new trend of underground hip-hop nerds going out
and making the music themselves. And with tracks like his cover of Tom
Lehrer's "The Elements", Jesse Dangerously and
his pretentious-sounding How To Express Your Dissenting Political
Viewpoint Through Origami seem like the very embodiment of this
little subculture. And he is, and it's not a bad thing. Not at all. Jesse
demonstrates that there are many advantages to embracing
"nerd-rap". For one thing, this unpopular status grants him
access to a ridiculously extensive collection of samples, which range
from animé to the Muppets, and many more I couldn't recognize.
They're used frequently and skillfully. In all of the bizarre samples
on the album, there isn't a single one that sounds out of place.
Jesse is an exceptionally clever rapper. His rhymes are
eccentric and coherent, ironic and honest, funny and yet solemn. He
manages to do what a lot of good rappers still find themselves unable
to do; he walks the fine line between the gratuitously ironic rhymes
of MC Paul Barman and the incredulously oblivious ego of 50
Cent. It would be very easy for Jesse to get carried away
in wordplay like "I don't exactly lisp but I've got trouble with
my sybbaless", and it would be equally easy for him to turn the
album into an ego-trip with rhymes like "I'm the best since DJ
Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince!" However, Jesse rarely
sounds pretentious, despite the wordy title and wordy flow of the
album.
In addition to more entertaining tracks like the bizarre
"Otherworldly" and the cacophonic "Cinqo de Mayo",
Jesse hands us a fair bit of autobiography which is at once
poignant, funny, and exceedingly conscious - like the rap equivalent of
Dave Eggers' A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. He's
very good at playing with different narratives, and at many moments on
the album is evocative of a more playful Buck 65.
The only flaw with the vocals is, well, the vocals. Jesse's flow is
not as crisp and articulate as many rappers out there. Simply put, he
does not e-nun-ci-ate. When he tries too hard to spit a hundred words
a second, he ends up getting kind of mumbly, which can be both a
strength and a weakness. At his best he creates a very smooth flow
throughout the song; at his worst he's simply incomprehensible. Most
of the album, thankfully, is in the former, "best" category,
so don't get too worried.
As far as production goes, I must admit that upon receiving this CD
I was extremely skeptical about the glut of instrumental tracks and
interludes. (9 of the 22 tracks feature no rapping whatsoever.)
Considering the fact that his rap numbers essentially rode on the
strength of his lyrical creativity, I just saw these instrumental
tracks as filler-type copouts, beats which Jesse didn't have
the time to write a rhyme for. Upon listening, however, they present
themselves as legitimate songs worthy of an album of their own. Jesse
is an extremely versatile instrumentalist, with songs ranging from the
melancholy "Adormecido No Sol" to the genuinely groovy
"Wicca Puffer".
Jesse's skills as a producer are evident here. Production,
expectedly, isn't as clean as mainstream material; but is nevertheless
far superior to most amateur beats. The creativity demonstrated in his
beats, however, more than compensates for this fault: Jesse
obviously knows how rhythm works and avoids the trap that most amateur
hip-hop musicians fall into, in crafting simple, straightforward beats
recycled from the inferior commercial acts. Not once does he regress
to the bland bass/snare combo that mars so many other independent
hip-hop efforts.
The production is such a strength on this album that when Jesse
does lose himself vocally, the ingenious rhythms can carry the song on
their own. He even manages to write a song in 5/4 and get away with
it. And for all the rhythmical deviations he drops on us, it never
seems to be different for its own sake. What he does genuinely
improves the songs instead of being obnoxiously self-serving.
In the end, this aspect of the album is what sets it apart from
mockeries like the aforementioned "Brainstorm" parody. How
To Express is always bizarre, and always unconventional.
But instead of being self-gratifying, it's strangely honest and highly
individual. This is definitely something you won't be able to find in
the mainstream, and missing this would be, well, missing out.
89%
Engelbert K. Mutton [Vitals:
22 tracks, distributed by the
artist, released
2004] |
