Monday, March 07, 2005
The Absent
Proceed with caution as you enter the symphony
Degrees of pulse will increase intensely
Syndrome was caused by the deadly drums
But the battle was won by swords being swung
Slicing with a vocal
From the international vocalist
Ya style is too local
To fuck with this
All fits of antagonists
No assistance movin motionless
Mysterious swiftness
Thoughts roll down the shaft of the brain
Mental gives the signal to the physical
Whirlwind kicks and hits from every angle
Violent temperments
Uncountenance dented
Poison vintage wine rhymes I invented
Chumped by the drunken punches that punches the heart
Vital sparks from the arteries start
-Masta Killa, "Glaciers of Ice"
for as long as I can remember I've always loved the line, "Ya style is too local to fuck with this". coming from Houston where every other dude was DJ Screw's third-cousin and the term "crunk" was new and harmless, I always criticized my Southern rap brethren on the basis of being hyper-regional and not post-geographic enough. sure, the beats were fire but as someone who enjoyed more syllables in a verse than in a lecture on Hegel, I leaned towards snobby NY rap of the 90's (Company Flow, Sir Menelik, Natural Resource, Wu-Tang) and left the rest of that stuff to the birds. around my neighborhood, the suburban white kids bumped Screw and everyone else watched the gentrification of gangsta rap from a distance. I suppose ubiquity can make you hate things.
fast forward six years and now every New York rap critic is on this shit.
who would have known?
