Pete Rock - Cosmic Slop (Petestrumentals 2)

Mello Music Group has in a very short time established themselves as the hitmakers of the day for independent conscious Hip Hop.  Much of this has to do with the label founders and their philosophy of paying a living regular wage to their artists instead of soon-to-be-blown advances (which must be repaid against earnings).  Using this philosophy of remuneration they have managed to dominate a string of spring releases from Drew Dave's Synthbased to Red Pill's Look What The World Did To Us. Signing the indomitable Open Mike Eagle to a two record deal beginning with the most intelligent Hip Hop release of 2014 Dark Comedy.  Meanwhile, former Little Brother progenitor, Rapper Big Pooh released Words Paint Pictures echoing the conscious midwest sound of his brethren including legendary albums such as Elzhi's (Black Milk produced The Preface from 2008).

But finding a home for one of the Big Four of sample based producers like Pete Rock for his Petestrumentals 2 (due June 23) was a true coup d'etat.  Petestrumentals 2 is actually the third installment of Pete's Beat Generation series which he updated to respond in kind to Jay Dee's (aka J Dilla's) landmark Welcome to Detroit album. 

Open Mike Eagle - Dark Comedy Late Show lyrics

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Open Mike Eagle - Dark Comedy review

So many 'Hip Hop' 'albums' and even more 'mixtapes' come out in a year that you're excused dear reader if you can't make out the kernel from the chaff.  Dark Comedy by Open Mike Eagle is the sort of album, of any genre, that reaches out and grabs you after about 17 seconds and keeps paying off all the way through.

Eagle is an L.A. based rapper born in Chicago.  He's affiliated with the Project Blowed crew, a legendary group of west coast underground freestylers including the singular Aceyalone, Busdriver, Mikah 9 and Abstract Rude. 
Rather than adopt the affected pose of a rented-wardrobe second unit hip hop video he invokes and calls out all of these cliches in prompt order.

If he sounds smart-as-hell it's because he is.   Eagle, born Michael Eagle II, is a serious brainiac.  He's a former special education teacher and "he co-authored and participated in a study conducted by the National Institutes of Health that observed the locations of increased brain activity during freestyle rapping".  Plus anyone who namechecks Joe Walsh ('analogue Eagle Joe Walsh bandanna on' - Thirsty Ego Raps) and Little Lord Fauntleroy ("I changed my rap name to Lil' Wonder Boy/ You change your rap name to Little Lord Fauntleroy").  Little Lord Fauntleroy (the title of a 19th century children's novel and a term for an overly precious silly bloused nitwit) isn't exactly a name you hear checked in Hip Hop these days.  It's the sort of reference that sent fake feds running for fake notepads when they picked it up on a wire in Tony Soprano's basement.

It gets better.  If you like your brainy Hip Hop without the silly blouses a good mitigator is a healthy dose of comedy.  In that regard Eagle comes from the Kyu Sakamoto school of hard knocks. Sakamoto's hit song Sukiyaki (the name of a steak dish) was popular with GI's returning from the Korean war.  Really titled Ue o Muite Arukou it translates as: "I look up as I walk/ So that the tears won't fall".  Except Eagle doesn't seem to be getting over the heartbreak of a romance with a Japanese starlet.  He's too busy changing diapers and rapping about them.  Which is also a tired cliché in Hip Hop these days everyone uses that schtick most recently from memory Busdriver who (produces Deathmate Black on Dark Comedy) also has a strong album out this year (Perfect Hair).  Except Eagle is aware of the cliche and exploits it to deft effect.

Then there's the references and referentiality; Dave Gahan, Jon Lovitz and Doug Stamper (one of whom is fictional).   It was the last one and you need to have seen House of Cards to get the reference (Stamper is Spacey's character Frank Underwood's chief of staff and sick fixer).  Even better on the song- appropriately titled Doug Stamper (Advice Raps) - Hannibal Burress (most famous recently for being the comedian who said out loud that Bill Cosby is a rapist becoming an ally to all the women he's raped giving them much needed legitimacy) is featured (although it's rumoured that Amy Poehler ghost wrote the verse).