#boomiverse

[chrishinxmcgee2]

[iclout]

Visit Original Link

[adevotedappraisal]

Chocolate by Big Boi from Boomiverse

There’s this scene in the recent documentary on the Dungeon Family The Art of Organized Noise, where we the viewer are shown the mythical Dungeon, a basement in an unasuming house in East Point, Georgia where so many 90s classics from Outkast to Goodie Mob to even TLCs “Waterfalls” were created.  Into the nice house we are shown Rico Wade’s mother and smiling sister and past them to the dungeon.  And boy is it an actual dungeon, with what looks like dirt floors and no clear place for bedding for the team of men that slept there. Humble beginnings aside, you really get a sense that this is the place where that thick, low funk that permeated Outkasts first three albums and Goodie Mobs first two, was possible.  And, listening to Big Bois latest Boomiverse, you see how far he has left that original sound behind, how far away that squat red house on some side street off Delowe seems, curling away towards the horizon.  But what is Big Boi hurtling towards?

Now some of that original sound is here, just in different forms.  Organized Noize, the producers behind that seminal music, produce four of the twelve songs here, acting as a spine of the album that the other songs play off of, or diverge from totally.   They give a good start to the album with the chopped up trap paced boasts of “Kill Jill,” manipulating a Japanese ballad into strips of cool samples, with Big Boi and Killer Mike trading verses while Jeezy growls and sneers over the thing, saying at one point “I hear em talkin’ reckless, won’t even address it.” They also provide a great beat for Big and Snoop Dogg on “Get Wit It,” giving them this tense funk, with solid drums under a bassline entombed in this deep chrome synth.  It’s the type of futuristic groove you kinda imagined Dr. Dres Detox would’ve sounded like once upon a time.

Organized do their job, so the success or failure of Boomiverse falls on the choices Big made in his choice of outside producers, and your enjoyment of this project will depend on whether you even think the Georgia U.S. rapper should be running away from his past in the first place.  In any event, these other songs are among the most eclectic I’ve heard from a southern MC in a long time.  Some choices make sense like “In the South” with Pimp C and Gucci Mane. Produced by TM88 and co-produced by Organized Noise, the song is anchored by a thick, surly bassline, with Big Boi and Gucci’s dense drawl taking us on a tour, along with closer “Follow Deez” with Killer Mike and Curren$y, a completely enjoyable deep south banger from Cash Money records legend Mannie Fresh.  Other selections leave the rapper open to questioning, with lead single “Mic Jack” with Adam Levine and Sleepy Brown, a song that is dressed up and polished, but not sure where to go.  There’s the assured, measured strut of Big’s verses juxtaposed against the shiny pop blast from Levine, a tonal shift that results in both parts blunting the impact of the other.  “All Night” is an effective summer trifle produced by Dr. Luke, a reggae-lite head-scratcher of a collaboration that works mostly, while “Freakanomics” falters into embarrassment with a slogging, generic beat and chorus with a disinterested Big talking something about girls.  I always imagine it as the music Saudi princes listen to as they take drugs on yachts.  The most interesting and divisive thing Big Boi has attempted from these new recordings though, is in the form of late album highlight “Chocolate.”

Well first there’s that beat, the crunching bass and kick drum of this house track improbably added to a southern rap album that immediately wipes clean everything that happened before it and implores you to come to a party.  The song is based on a song of the same name that appeared a couple years earlier on the Subsoul presents: House album, but this update is more exciting and dressed up for the major label spotlight, what with its itchy synth brought up in the mix and the cymbal ride getting cooler sounding as the whole thing is amped up, even that deep echoing ‘CHOC-O-LATE.’ voice, and Big Boi manages to ride this beat well, making it his own. In quick rolling verses Big reports from the centre of the party, engaging enough to not get lost in the undertow of the booming beat.  Other rappers have made their forays into House-like beats, most notably Anderson.paak with “Am I Wrong?” with ScHoolboy Q, Kanye West with “Fade” and, the closest to come to bringing this level of House to the surface, The Foreign Exchange’s “Asking For a Friend” featuring Phonte’s loopy vocals over Nicolay’s r&b-tinged version of House.  Even though Phonte was more in control of the song than Big here, “Chocolate” is the better song by how much it wants to show off.  The song is filled with character, has a distinct point of view and doesn’t shy from its ambitions.  Now does such a polarizing song belong on a Big Boi album? I don’t really care at this point, I’m just glad it exists.

But the issue of where songs fit does need investigation. Because the issue of this collection is that a lot of these songs are really good in their own right, but don’t fit next to each other, making it next to impossible to get a groove into the album.  As soon as you get settled(I mean why put “Freakonomics” in the middle of the fantastic “Made Men” and “Follow Deez”?), Big throws something else at you.  Say what you will about his second album Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors (reviewed here), at least the digitized alt-rap sound had a direction, the same way his debut Sir Lucious Leftfoot was steeped in soul grooves and warm horn lines.  This new one feels aimless yet substantial, bold in choices yet ultimately noncommittal to any one path, suggesting Big Boi himself is not completely sure he knows where he’ll go next, at once worrisome and exciting.  Meanwhile the women of that house off Delowe would have doubtless tidied up the dungeon, probably using it for smart storage, talking loud and soft among themselves, able to find solid footing to balance what came before, with what has to come in the future.

[bigboi]

Daddy Fat Saxxx Tour ! Go to BigBoi.com for Details!

[dropout-worker]

“Kill Jill v2″

First thing first (rest in peace Uncle Phil) I HIGHLY recommend you listen to the actual song here.

i would also like to thank a good friend of mine @harvey0049 who helped with the lettering of everything.

[ihiphop]

[allthosesadsongs]

Been following @c2ctees and finally own one. #stankonia #boomiverse #coast2coasttees #atl #atlanta

[vincefraser]

View this post on Instagram

Thanks for the repost @therealbigboi 🚀🤴🏾🔥#boomiverse #killjill #creativeideas #artdirection #albumartwork #vincefraser #musician #hiphop #videoarte #visualeffects #motiongraphics #contemporaryart #film #digitalmarketing #visualart #onlinemarketing #outkast #entertainment #photooftheday #advertising #cinematography #events #soultrain #band #graphicdesign #fashion #media #blackartist #photography #lookclosely @rapstuff @rapdirect @1minute2rap @rap @rapup @rapradar @hiphopdx @pmwhiphop @khetanya @plotagraphpro @supportblackart @blavity @blackart365 @exquisiteblackart @afropunk @visualambassadors @dope_black_art @huffpostarts @untainted_expression @africaniism @yesladypheonix @artdojointernational @sinistar22x2 (at Atlanta, Georgia)