Strong Arm Steady, Stoney Jackson
Strong Arm Steady , Stoney Jackson [Stones Throw]
» Coming at you with a mélange of funky beats, trippy Madlib the Beat Konducta production and some cool rhymes, the Strong Arm Steady collective’s new album, In Search of Stoney Jackson is a dazzling array of rhymes, featuring Guilty Simpson, Chace Indefinite, Evidence, Fashawn, Mitchy Slick, Montage One, Oh No, Defari, Phats Bossalini, Phonte, Planet Asia, Res, Roc C, Roscoe, Sick Jacken, Tri, and the great Talib Kweli.
Madlib forges a sound for these emcees more vibrant than the psyched out “soul cinema” album cover of Stoney Jackson. The opening “Best of Times” features Phonte dishing out biting commentary, “If times get tight, will the shows still sell out? Poor folk need help they call it welfare, but when rich folk need it they call it a bailout, it make me wanna yell out… new opportunities are ways to rhyme, respect your mind and celebrate the best of times.” This quip is the mode of this album, a celebratory statement of embracing the day while saddled with its uncertainties. Tracks like “Cheeba Cheeba,” “Chittlins & Pepsi” and “Questions” scope the topics of grass, fatherhood and issues of “blood sweat and tears, take a look back at my life, like how did I make it here?”
Talib Kweli reignites the party midway through the album with “Get Started,” surrounded by the quirky soul segments “Interlude 1,” “Smile” and the romance of “New Love.” The album takes off on an odyssey of dizzying and dazzling heights with “Pressure,” “True Champs,” and “Get Money.” The album ends in comedy, with “Interlude 2,” “Chants,” “Bark Like a Dog,” “Two Pistols” featuring a mixture of samples rolling forward and backwards (possibly lifted from the Main Ingredient’s “Everybody Plays the Fool”), the rough and tough “Ambassadors” and the obligatory “Outro” that presents Madlib mixing together a break-beat finish.
The Strong Arm Steady no doubt have already taken their hats off to Madlib’s amazing production. When the album does falter, in moments where the rap flows are not as “steady” as their namesake, they're smoothly washed under rich layers of samples, beats and effects that trigger vague action movie flashbacks. It could be said that while In Search of Stoney Jackson is a hip-hop jam session in nature, the Strong Arm Steady collective sounds like they are living in their own b-movie scored by the Beat Konducta himself.
Posted on February 09, 2010
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