The Left - Gas Mask - Vinyl Record (LP) - M/M
£
55
$
73
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Description
Gas Mask is the sort of underground hip-hop record that always seems to pop up over the last three or four years. Guided by a strict mid-’90s ethos that sabotages other efforts, it somehow manages to rise above not only that crop, but much of the year’s more contemporary offerings as well. The Left, a trio lead by rising producer Apollo Brown — whose style is more Oddisee, 9th Wonder, or Marco Polo than Detroit proper — and joined by unknowns MC Journalist 103 and DJ Soko, have given old school heads a very nice surprise. The scratched hooks from DJ Soko are all tastefully done and make the heart warm in an era of mostly sung, melodic hooks. Journalist 103’s rhymes are very straightforward and minimal, often decrying the staleness of current hip-hop without using so much of the “let’s take it back” rhetoric as other Tea Party type contemporaries. He also admirably brings back the lost art of rappers — gasp — rapping their hooks. While their main conceit is that the industry is comprised of toxic terrorists pumping fumes of death into the mindspace of mainstream listeners, they easily avoid creating anything overwrought or heavy-handed.
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