By: David Appelt. Music lover and uneducated opinion over-sharer.
In my humble opinion, there are very few rap albums (like hardcore albums) that come out every year that are truly trying to be different and creative. It’s sad that a genre created on the tenants of challenging the status quo can often be so wrote and routine. That’s why I love labels like Humble Beast, and independent artists like Playdough. His new album We Buy Gold is, at the very least, the most interesting rap album of the year.
Playdough has always been a bit of a loner in the industry, and always trying to make projects he is interested in above what he thinks will sell best. The Texas emcee has something about his style that I love: it’s original. It feels classic. It’s fun and thoughtful at once. It feels like listening to the rap scene when it was getting birthed, and taking root in culture. It doesn’t feel overproduced, and it actually seems like Playdough wrote these lyrics with actual messages he wanted to get out to the listener.
The style hits you in the face with a bit of classic rap (think Run-DMC) and also a bit of the direction I see people like Kendrick taking the genre. Truthfully though, I can’t really place the sound of the record. You have to listen to it to really get it. Over top the music Playdough does some excellent lyrical work. As is his typical fashion, almost all of the lyrics are tongue-in-cheek, giving truth in satire, and pushing the listener to both “having a good time” and to think deeper about the ideas he brings up.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k_SfX3upbM[/youtube]I think what I appreciate most about the album is that it will likely confuse people who want a typical hip-hop record, yet enthuse those of us who want something more for the genre. The tracks flow one to the next often in a rhythm similar to a mixtape, and it does a good job of varying sound enough to keep your ear interested, but it isn’t so schizophrenic that you wonder if the songs were written decades apart from each other.
There are few misses on the album. My top picks have to be King Tut, Humble Pie, Step to the Ride, and Weight In Gold (the quasi-title track). All of the songs, with rare-exception, point out the over-abundance of pride (not only in the rap industry, but the world at large), and the valuing of things that just don’t matter over that which does.
The recommendation: Go pick it up. At the very least, this can be some feel good music to bump in the nicest and loudest set of speakers you have. At its best, it can get you thinking.
Score: if 2.5 is worth your money, 5 is (arguably) a top album all time, and 4 is a game-changer, I will toss this album right at 3.5/5.
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