Baron Samedi Spit Happens LP
Following on from last years hugely impressive Undercurrent LP, Baron Samedi goes solo for his next LP release ‘spit happens’ a 16 track collection covering many a topic, one dimensional this isn’t, can he handle a whole LP on his own? Well let’s see.
After the standard easily skippable intro most hip hop listeners are treated to, the LP starts off properly with ‘as usual’ four minutes of phat braggadocio rapping over a neck propelling bouncing beat backed with what seems like ukulele sample, with a glorious sing a long chorus, nice start.
It’s after this that Samedi moves on to more conceptual tracks, ‘fame academy’ is an astute commentary on what motivates certain musicians in the industry and what it takes to get there “you don’t need talent, all you need is to be totally gangsta to succeed” the quirky beat compliments the tongue in cheek narrative, genius stuff. ‘Unamerican Psycho’ is a tale of a messed up individual from childhood to the present told in the first person by Samedi over haunting production and the hook of “life’s so beautiful” adding to the pathos of the track, impressive again.
The LP reverts to Samedi’s cleverly constructed and delivered battle raps with the title track ‘spit happens’ the beat again is more boom bap phatness “fuck the bigger picture I’ll punch my fist through and rip the canvass” of one of his many gems on here, a track to get rowdy to. Track six ‘lahdantahn’ is an intricately descriptive story of daily life in his home town, however I find the overly jovial production and chorus incredibly irritating and therefore the brilliance of the lyrics is lost on me as I can’t bear to listen to the music, can’t like ‘em all can you? ‘Thistory’ is a similar story for me lyrics are for the deep thinkers but the dodgy accordion in the music has me thinking of ‘Allo ‘Allo episodes which kinda detracts from what the MC is saying.
‘Animals’ is a step up in production with Samedi going double time on what seems like his take on Fallacy’s ‘groundbreaker’ as it contains several references to that track, a club banger with intelligent lyrics, no really. The following track ‘baronoia’ is another skippable one for me, the production drudges along with some ropey ‘oh oh’s’ thrown in for good measure. Following the upbeat ‘undercurrent’ which sees Lixx and Baron trading battles verse over tight production, Baron turns back to his conceptual side in which he excels. ‘Longlife’ is a melancholic journey through the depressing reality of a 9-5 office life “I’m slave to the wage my agency pays me to waste my brain in a maze of paper and stationery” whilst ’12-bar blues’ is the story of someone who had it and lost it and could be any rock stars biography it’s so accurately written.
‘voodoo mic’ is easily the best production on the LP for with Samedi spitting more punch lines “cats that spat with me collapse and die of thirst”; ‘musick’ is a reflective and moving description of the art that has millions obsessed by it. Despite the seemingly all-star underground line up of Conflix, Shotslinga, Baron and Redmaster accompanied by an epic beat, the penultimate track ‘snowstorms’ drops short of my expectations, the MCs don’t really stamp their authority on the track to my ears – something I never thought I’d see myself write given their previously outstanding work. The LP ends with the appropriately titled ‘The Final Cut’ which Baron posing questions and giving answers on life and hip hop good, if not hugely attention grabbing stuff.
In reflection, the LP is a solid effort – the good tracks really are good, but on the other hand I do find myself skipping quite a few when trying to sit down and listen to it one go – something I couldn’t do with the Undercurrent LP as each track was a must listen on that. This isn’t to detract from what Samedi has come up with here, this LP shits on the majority of UK LPs out there and quite a few U.S. ones too, maybe I was expecting a little bit more following his previous work but still every hip hop home should have a copy of this, so why not take a visit to his website and do the right thing.
- Rhodesy
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