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geschrieben von renzo

Rhythmicru – Open Canvas (After Midnight Records, 2003)

A couple of weeks ago, I surprisingly received a package from Canada containing the new album “Open Canvas” by a collective called Rhythmicru. This fresh crew is from Toronto, Canada, and it consists of 7 visionaries. Their first album was called “RhythmicWho?” and was released in 2001. The debut album sold out the initial run of 1'000 copies and received good feedback. The latest album by Rhythmicru is their second, and it was released on After Midnight Records, a label that was founded by the members of Rhythmicru. Their own label gives them the chance to really do whatever is on their minds, only the sky’s the limit. There are seven people in the group, each one individually multi-talented. You can find: DJs, producers, emcees, studio engineers, visual artists and creative, artistic and brand directors. The names of the crew-members are: A-Tom, Batho, Cale Sampson, D-Ray the Kid, Charlie Green, Craig Harper's Bizarre and TheSnowyOwl.

The Album contains 14 tracks of which none is weak. I listened to the album a lot and it didn't take long to feel the music and the lyrics.

The sound they produce reminds me of different artists like EPMD, Atmosphere and lots of others. The whole album is raw energy. From my point of view, the potential this group has, is comparable to the Rhymesayers Collective. It is as independent and it gathers gifted artists to give them a platform. Their approach to music and hiphop itself is praiseworthy: it is not about profit, it is about music, love and life. Rhythmicru is also deeply involved in the Toronto community organizing events all over the city.

Now to the album itself. You can find a broad spectrum of different styles on the disc. The 7 members’ versatility allowed them to put together an album that has a gem on it for every listener out there. The album starts out with a reference to their debut album “RhythimcWho?”, which is, at least, as dope as their follow-up. The first instrument that you can hear on “Open Canvas” is a guitar. The name of the track: “Tilted” featuring J. Brakewood. Some of you might know it, some won’t: I’m totally psyched about tracks being accompanied by guitars. So for me, this track is damn hot, it has a sound to it that reminds me of stuff from Asheru & Blue Black of Unspoken Heard out of New York. The track is nicely arranged with guitar licks and an appropriate head-nodding beat to it. It starts out with the following lines:

Here you can already feel what Rhythmicru is all about. In these lines we learn that they are sharing the same essential thoughts about music that we are trying to incarnate here on our site. We don’t want music to be about appearance, looks and promotion. There’s no passion (or even obsession) in making tracks because the mere thought of having a shot at the big time impedes the creative process. On the other hand, you’ll always find honest bands and artists like Rhythmicru if you are just willing to look beneath the surface. Kasey Chambers, one of my favorite artists, describes the music that floats on the surface as a pain to the ear;

The following tracks come with straight-forward beats. “Vibin’” leaves you in a dark, busy-city-like atmosphere. “Dreamin’” - my favorite track on “Open Canvas” - hits me right where it should. Its sound is so nice and takes you back to the classic times of hiphop. The sample used by Rhythmicru is awesome. On “Gimme 5 Minutes” it is time to shine for D-Ray the Kid, over an also more or less murky beat.

When I was collecting information about the crew and was checking out the feedback they received across Media-Land, I came across a review on “Open Canvas” on www.RapReviews.com written by William Ketchum III. That’s where I got the following lyrics and also the lyrics quoted above. William Ketchum wrote out some lines from “Distractions”:

I think that’s really how it is nowadays. You meet people, you talk to them and everyone is an emcee, no matter whether they released anything or not. There is an African proverb saying: “If you can talk, you can sing. If you can walk, you can dance.” Many rappers nowadays are trying to change it to: “If you can talk, you can rap.” But that’s just not true. I can speak, I can write but does that mean I can rap? Don’t think so, buddy!

Check out “Crazy As A Loon”! That’s the best beat on the album. Other people will think differently of it because it is the slowest track and less head-nodding than any other track on this album. The atmosphere conserved in the track makes me think of sitting on a balcony on a nice summer-day, thinking my time away while enjoying the sun set or rise. The way the rhymes are delivered suddenly reminded me of Mars Ill or Slug of Atmosphere. The track is about life, about how much you can determine in your life. It is not all written, the human being is not trapped in his or her fate. The Greeks may have thought of an absolute fate which you can’t escape by no means. Rhythmicru puts it like that: “If you want something good to happen to you, then make it!”. There is no conspiracy that brings you down, it’s only you.

Another well-arranged and intelligent track is “The Renaissance Will Happen (When The Modern Days End)”. The Renaissance was a very important period of mankind’s history and I think it is a pretty well chosen metaphor to express the lack of traditional values today. I don’t want to say that the enormous progress in the whole independent scene has anything negative to it, au contraire, this progress was influenced by innovative and creative individuals loving the music they produce. They were just taking the game one level higher but still based on the values of a classic time.

The next beat hits the audience hard, and so will the lyrics. “Facts of War” is a track about war, oil and the Bush Government, it is about the exploitation of the Iraqi people, it is about censorship in the American News and it is about the government trying to enrich themselves by bringing war to a foreign country under the pretext to help the population. The USA provides us with this picture of bringing freedom to mankind all around world but actually they are not interested in neither the population of a country nor solving the situation. What they are after are the natural resources that a country holds. If you look at the world today, there’s so many countries that could use more than a little financial and economic help but does Bush care about them? Nah. “Facts of War” starts out with a list of products that are made of oil, products that incarnate (in a way) the American society (as well as the western civilization). Or let’s say America is built upon such products more than any other nation and could barely survive without them (25% of all petroleum is used by the US of A). For example, I don’t think that you can get gas/fuel any cheaper than in America. One of the best lines in this track is the following one: “Which countries could grow, is up to them [USA] to decide!” followed by “and if you back Bush / you did a part of this / if you don’t cooperate he makes it very hard to live / gotta wonder if 9/11’s just an excuse to go through with something he already wanted to do”. Rhythmicru reveals news on the American President I did not know before. For example: “This president never served when he was called upon and pulled strings to avoid combat in Vietnam.” or “ Did you know the first oil drilling business he got / lost lots of money and was financial flop [...] hoping the family name would help his reputation.” I thought nepotism was only represented in small villages with minor contacts to the surroundings but that notion seems to be wrong. I hope that didn’t get to political for you but I couldn’t just put a cork into it.

“Four-twenty” is another track full of energy. From my point of view this is also one of the best tracks on the disc. The flow that is presented on the track is grand. The beat is classic. The lyrics are sharp. “It’s free consciousness leading to free speech, with the freedom to express, let the freestyle speak, freely through our free minds!”. Check out how the beat joins the words as the emcee starts with the following line: “Everyone’s gotta have some partners in crime, but for me it’s all about partners in rhymes”. The way it sounded from my speakers reminded me of a track called “Remember” which you can find on “Project Ambershine” (House of Kemetic Suns).

The album is really fresh and anyone looking for new creative heads in hiphop music ought to listen to Rhythmicru. Their approach to music is honest and straight. The references to other artists I only put so you have parallels, based on which you can decide if the Rhythmicru fits into your music scheme. They remind me of groups like EPMD and Talib Kweli in the same extant as they remind me of independent artists like the Kemetic Suns, Atmosphere and Mars Ill. I guess some of you might even be offended by me listing all these groups in the same sentence. But it is not a contradiction at all, it just emphasizes the versatility of the group being able to cover the whole spectrum of hiphop nowadays.

Renzo

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Tracks 15 & 16 are hidden tracks.