Week in Pop: ETA, Kristen Barredo, Micah E. Wood

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MC Paul Barman

The triumphant return of MC Paul Barman; press photo courtesy of the artist.

The emcee veteran of rhetoric MC Paul Barman returns with the hotly anticipated (((echo chamber))) release available May 18 from Mello Music Group, offering the following exclusive preface for the new album. Collaborating with vets like ?uestlove on the ones & twos in an exchange of rhymes on the title track with Open Mike Eagle, to the Memory Man beat backed “(((commandments)))” & prosodic punctuation games of “(((leapfrog)))”, with the album closer that tunes signals in with manual dials in a collaboration with o.g. Masta Ace on “((((((Antennas))))))”. Through it all, MC Paul Barman retains rich poetic schemes that span from the intuitive to the outright unusual & humorous. The mic master brings back the old school flair with updated observations that present perspectives on the complications & madness of the modern world.

Paul Barman’s preface for (((echo chamber))):

Impose asked to me to write a few words about the “echoes and influences around the making of the album.” Here they are, in three stages…

(((before we started)))

Is it possible to be an artist, father, and earner, all at the same time, and do all of them well?

(((during creation)))

I really thought we could get over tribalism. The fruits of the Earth could sustain us all. Can it still?

(((after the album announcement)))

Snoop asks all his talk show guests which three records they’d take to a desert island. He’s a music lover so could he really answer that? I’d say, Can I bring three radio stations instead? I’d bring WFMU and WKCR and…what’s the best non-western radio station? Or, Can I bring three DJs instead? A skratch DJ like Spinbad, a super-eclectic DJ like ?uest and a party DJ like you, Snoop. No no no, press is about shining a light on the undernamed, so keep it simple: I’d bring Broadcast One by Memory Man, Hahaha by Yazan, and The Redux by Prince Paul.




MC Paul Barman’s (((echo chamber))) will be available May 18 from Mello Music Group.