Our selection for "Best Creative and Conscious Hip Hop Album/ EP" of the previous week goes to the talented Nashville Emcee "R.A.P. Ferreira" entitled "5 to the Eye with Stars". A 9 track project clocking in around 23 minutes with mainly solo rhymes from the skilled poet/emcee displaying abstract but thoughtful and expressive lyrics that touches on subjects like free expression, strength and resiliance (fighting back), being true to self, knowing one's power within (ours), intuition and being in touch with one's feelings, having a clear conscious (consolation), the nosensical actions of man and corruption of power (sittlichkeit), the impact of instinct and the importance of doing what's from the heart (mythsysizer instinct), rebelling against boxes and oppression (ark doors), freedom from anger and past pain, overcoming, having gratitude (lampiao's flow), developing self, appreciating the present and finding inner happiness (tennesse farmer jutsu), knowing one's worth and moving stealthy (boot knife). These subjects are just the general message that I think each song is attempting to display but not necessarily the complete message of each song. The interesting thing about this album is that there are so many layers of abstract lyricsm displayed, that you'll likely catch random bursts of clever quotables through out various sections of the album. I find that this happens not just with certain lyrics but often with the hooks and repeated catch lines in a variety of songs. The production is subtle and pleasantly jazzy contributed by a variety of producers including Daddy Kev, Rose Noir, Joe Nora, Basico and ZOCHI, Kenny Segal, D-Styles, Willie Cable and Frythm.
Some of the standout lines on the album are the following:
"It's epic poetry that keeps the cosmos orbiting" - fighting back
"as we took the sky and the skies become ours" - ours
"I ain't spit I blew out cynders (a black dragon) / dunked on you like Lou Alcinder/ and changed my name like Lou Alcinder (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) - ours
"well fed my consolation, well said my conscience narrating" - consolation
"it didn't make sense like collecting used bandaids, I don't like people all my problems is man made" - sittlichkeit
"No one ever really dies, we'll no one ever really cared either, they nod as if incredulity made them wiser" - mythsysizer instict
"Never been inside the matrix, you'll see no plug nor foot on my neck" - ark doors
"Gratitude the only attitude you could get from me/ my son laugh sound like a symphony/ and God never failed to ask me if I'm listening/ I ain't been caught slacking at it yet" - lampiao's flow
"But I missed the punchline, doing mental math to see if I could spare a laugh/ that's the true nature of anticipation" - tennessee farmer jutsu
"Leaving out the important section has been my secret weapon/ now it's a boot knife" - boot knife
"my mindset is on abundance, these mf's is Wakanda Pundits" - boot knife
My favorite tracks are "mythsysizer instinct, lampiao's flow, sittlichkeit, ours, conselation, and boot knife", but each track is unique and dope in their own way. I'm glad that the album is quite short considering the density of the lyrics. It gives the opportunity to observe the music carefully with having to lend a longer period of attention. It certainly takes time but the short duration and subtle jazzy/pleasant production makes the listening experience pleasing through out the album. I feel like the album continues to grow as you continue past the middle point. So I encourage you to listen beyond track 5, the listening experience from there only gets better in my opinion. Check out R.A.P. Ferreira's new album "5 to the Eye with Stars" now available on bandcamp and dsps