A flimsy social commentary on contemporary Hip Hop for your weekend.
Aceyalone
Aceyalone is a Californian emcee and he's the type of name you can bring up when someone tells you that all hip-hop is just blacks rapping about getting drunk and fucking. I mean, The Lonely Ones is a song about a rapper helping out a woman whose car breaks down that eventually leads to them hooking up. To a rhyming Neanderthal like, say, Flo Rida this is the makings of a profanity laced couplet. To Aceyalone it's a romantic tale deserving a whole doo wop beat that sells the classiness with little acoustic-guitar arpeggios. While so much hip-hop is pornographic this is practically Titanic.
Aceyalone - The Lonely Ones (from The Lonely Ones LP available now)
General Elektriks
Continuing with the funky rhythms, there is also a good deal of retro jazz dripping from the antique electronic keyboards in which Hervé Salters revels. He's finished production of his second full length Good City For Dreamers under the General Elektriks name for Bay Area label Quannum Projects. The Frenchman lets the label's hip hop beats influence the funky jazz, blues and swing that makes this a seriously smooth LP.
General Elektriks - Little Lady (from the Good City For Dreamers LP out now)
Flo Rida
There's as much subtly in Flo Rida's flow as there is in his beats, that is, absolutely none. It's refreshing. Jump is just muscular bass and blinging synths. It isn't meant to be anything analytical or artistic, it's about smoushing together last year's Get Low with Maneater and there's nothing wrong with that. This is a song for the drunk and parting, for cheerleaders to dance to during timeouts, for when you don't want to think. It's OK, you can have it both ways.
Flo Rida - Jump (from the R.O.O.T.S. LP available now)
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