Earlier today, Bishop Nehru blessed the public with another drop, this time tapping frequent collaborator and underground legend MF DOOM and producer Kaytranada.
The new drop finds Bishy dropping lyrical hammers over some smooth introduction jazz flute, then keeping with the jazz vibes, transitioning into some crazy horns and percussion in which Nehru rightfully spits his on point flow over.
The song lives on a project that Nehru just dropped, titled Elevators: Act I & II, which features production entirely from MF DOOM, Montreal, Quebec, Canada producer Kaytranada, as well as the Emmy-Award-winning James Hall Worship and Praise choir to give backing vocals on several tracks. Bishop explains the album below;
"This project is a collection of my feelings straight from my heart, all of my ideas were created specifically off of instinct and intuitive occurrences. This album is my answer to the question, 'what would you say your music sounds like?' My answer to that would be 'Grammy Rap.' There's 'Mumble Rap' and then there's 'Grammy Rap.' With this project I was largely influenced by music theory and Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys. This is my attempt at a 'rap' Pet Sounds."
You can stream Bishop's new collaboration album on any streaming service (well, at least Spotify and Apple Music, as far as I know), and you can check out one of the new songs off the album, "Again & Again" below.
(*I do not own this song, artwork, or the rights to them*)
I love hip-hop. I could really talk about it just about all day. And being the lover of hip hop that I am requires loads of research. It can get tiring yes, but when you love something you'll go that much farther to learn more about it or make it happy (at least I don't have to buy it dinner though, that's always a plus). But recently my interest has peaked hearing about this MF DOOM character (just ONE of his characters, I might add), so I had to go back and do a bit of research on him, and I wasn't disappointed with what I found. Here are my 5 stand out MF DOOM tracks.
Rhymes Like Dimes
This was probably the first song from DOOM I heard, and it definitely had me wanting more just from hearing the beat. Highlights from DOOM's flow include lines like "classical slapstick rappers need chap stick", and he makes it all sound so great even without drums. One thing that definitely caught me by surprise though was the Bobbito feature towards the end of the track! I know nothing of his hip-hop history, but if you're a former PlayStation gamer like me, you know Bobbito from NBA Street Vol. 2!
One Beer
This song is an example of some fantastic sampling from DOOM (I'm not sure if he produced this song, but I do know he has a history of producing, most recently for Joey Bada$$), and he rides the beat effortlessly in his trademark, fast paced, never slowed down flow. I thought this sample had sounded familiar, and realized that Wiz Khalifa had used the same sound on the song "Visions" off of his incredibly successful Kush & Orange Juice mix tape.
America's Most Blunted
This song features a crazy, almost cartoon like beat and great verses from DOOM and the very fittingly trippy voiced Lord Quas. This track is definitely one for the smokers, it's evident by not only the sound of bong hits in the beginning, but the small Easter eggs put in towards the end of the track, sounds from who knows what. If I could say one thing about Madvilliany as a whole, it'd have to be that so far it's my favorite DOOM project to listen to, the beats are fantastic and DOOM is at the top of his game with his rhymes.
Old School Rules
This shit right here is RAW! Real rap raw (as the legendary Chocolate Droppa would say) is the only way to define this song, and with a beat that is just begging for some hard bars to be spit over it, DOOM and the legendary Talib Kweli do just that on this one. You could almost call this a cypher (certainly better than what we saw at the BET Awards this year)!
A.T.H.F
This is something I have never seen before in rap, and I have to say I like it a lot. I'm not even a big fan of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, but DOOM got them in a couple of skits, and even a song! Meatwad was spitting some hot rhymes on one of those tracks for a second. This comes from the Danger Doomalbum The Mouse and The Mask, which if you didn't know is a collaboration of DOOM and Danger Mouse (if you don't know Danger Mouse, he's produced a bunch of stuff for the Gorillaz). The Mouse and The Mask saw a couple of mainstream features for DOOM (like Ghostface Killah, Cee-Lo Green, and Talib Kweli) which is something you don't see a lot of.
So coming from a new DOOM listener, I have to say these tracks are definitely enough to keep me interested and see what else DOOM has to offer (although it's hard to keep track of all of his alias'). I have yet to listen to other great albums of his that were recommended, such as his Viktor Vaughn stuff and Black Bastards. Listening to his MM...FOOD album I feel like I was introduced to some of the core ways of how hip-hop started, with all of the features of samples talking about Doctor Doom and his evil reign of terror. Hip-hop truly is taking something and turning it into something better, and DOOM definitely did that with MM...FOOD, and he continues to do it with even his newer stuff, sticking to the roots of real emceeing and even producing. So if there's one thing I could say is thanks DOOM, maybe you're not so evil after all...
There are many heavily slept on hip hop acts that really don't get the shine they deserve until the point and time comes around when a project drops. I'm saying this not only as an avid observer of hip-hop, but as another example of one of those sleepers (as much as I hate to admit it myself). Joey Bada$$ has been all over the internet since about 2012, and he really got big after his acclaimed mix tape 1999 dropped in June of the same year. Joey has built a following of loyal fans based on his "trapped in the 90s" style and his impressive lyrical capabilities, which is even more impressive because of his incredibly young age of 19 (that's right, born in 1995, I'm starting to wonder what I'm doing with my life). Joey's debut album B4.DA.$$ is set for release in early 2015, and I'm having good feelings about it even as new of a fan as I am, and I'm about to tell you why.
Joey Bada$$ is keeping the real hip-hop alive (this is me speaking as an old time, OG type of old man who discusses hip hop as "it was only good back in the day." I've never actually done it myself, but I'll assume it's a lot more fun to do than to listen to). His sound is unlike many other rappers that you'll hear today, and my first guess is because of his New York influence (I'd also like to go on record to say that Joey's sound reminds me so much of Nas). Now I'm not going to get into what New York has done for hip hop (even though it's practically the mecca and the birth place of it all), you can research that on your own, but being an up and coming rapper from New York, there is definitely more pressure on your music and your sound than the average rapper, mostly due to the legendary history of New York hip-hop.
Now I mentioned that I'm a fairly new Joey listener myself, my interest peaked when I first gave his 2013 mix tape Summer Knights a listen, and I was certainly impressed. It doesn't get more hip-hop than tracks like "Word Is Bond", "95 Til Infinity", or "47 Goonz", and I'll admit "47 Goonz" makes me feel like I have the street cred to go out and do some dirty deeds myself. Not to mention the elite production featured on this tape, including one track from DJ Premier, another from Statik Selektah, and one from DOOM. And this track isn't on the tape, but Joey also went over a beat from the legendary J Dilla (I don't know how you become cool enough to do that at age 19, or get the qualifications to do so, but obviously Joey is cool enough). Joey is a refreshing product of the 90s. A very young one, but certainly refreshing, yet familiar on his take on life in the streets. And no matter how hard I try, I can NOT get this song's beat out of my head. If I get reminded of it, it's over.
By far my favorite Joey track (at least until "Christ Conscious" came out). All of Joey's music seems to have that "sitting around the house and chilling, maybe I'll do some laundry" type of vibe to it, although I personally can listen to it doing practically anything. Anyways, what do I expect from Joey's album you might ask? Aside from some more story-telling and personal songs, I'd say a bit of the same of what he's already put out. Normally this would be a bad thing, for anybody else a change of pace is good, but for Joey, staying true to his sound is what his fans need. You could go as far as saying it's what HIP-HOP NEEDS. To be able to say that the 90s (which to many is the golden age of it all) can still live through an emcee as young (and not to mention downright talented) as Joey Bada$$, I think the old heads can still live with a bit of hope. There is no word on who will be producing Joey's debut album, although I wouldn't be surprised to see some from heavyweights like DOOM and DJ Premier, and the producer that handles most of Joey's beats, Kirk Knight (give or take a few more names). So until that day comes, enjoy the supposed first leak off of B4.DA.$$, "Christ Conscious", and the music video accompanying it.
(*I do not own this video, this song, the song above, or the rights to either*)
