Deep Thingkers
Sevenfold Symphony alum Brother of Moses is a busy MC these days. Following fast on the heels of Land Mind, his fall pairing with producer Tall Tale, Bro Mo returns with another collaboration, this time alongside knob twister Leonard Dstroy.
On Land Mind, Tall Tale’s atmospheric production created an outer-space electroscope that set the stage for Bro Mo’s revolutionary prose. Dstroy’s approach is multifarious, utilizing jazz flourishes, old-school traditions and experimental corner turns. Awash in blue-note vibraphones, fluttering flutes, squealing saxophones and stuttering snares, Dstroy’s aural high jinks alone are worth the price of admission. The instrumental “Data Analysing Robot Youth Lifeform” serves generous slices of random noise on a butcher’s block of breakbeats, and guest scratcher IDL the Beatbroker drops jaws with a torrid turntablism display. On “Ante Up,” Dstroy takes over halfway in, expanding the taut number into a mellow bubblefest of live drums, guitar, piano and upright bass.
That doesn’t mean Bro Mo takes a backseat to the beatmaking. On the Middle-Eastern flavored “One Out of Ten,” the outspoken MC takes aim at sound-alikes, conformists, wanna-bes, sellouts and fakers. It’s a theme that surfaces repeatedly, consuming much of Bro Mo’s lyrical Outlook. “Pull Up Your Pants, Your Mom Is Here” heckles unmercifully with its singsong chorus: Everywhere I’ve been/And everywhere I roam/There’s some sucker with a similar flow/Busting at the show. At first glance, browbeating thug-lifers seems hypocritical, the equivalent of using the death penalty to teach killers that murder is wrong. But a closer look reveals genuine criticism ensconced in the fun-poking. “This Is What You Sound Like” bemoans glossy rap clichés but goes on to ponder what impact these images have on the youth. Still, it’s only when Bro Mo offers genuine solutions (“Too Long,” “Community Roots”) rather than slaying easy prey that he implants insight in the cranium and flavor in the ear.
