Artist: A-1
Album: After School Special
Release: 2010
Label: Self-Released
Tracklist:
1. 5 More Minutes (Intro)
2. The Price is Right
3. Charizard
4. All That!
5. Family Matters
6. Black Ranger
7. Golden Girls
8. Reading Rainbow
9. Goosebumps
10. Doug (Funnie Bitch)
Variety is the spice of life, and I’ve broken a cardinal rule of mine on ICDT: to never consecutively post records of the same genre. So after three heavy ones (Raw Radar War, Tribulation, and Anacrusis), I wanna switch gears entirely.
As established, hip-hop is not my biggest point of musical knowledge. While I am one of those whiteboys that loves Wu-Tang, and I have in fact met and conversed with Chuck D, I’m just not as up on the genre or its history as I should be. That said, I do occasionally browse around for stuff and have been stoked on a Milkcrate Breaks comp lately.
But I digress. A while back, this free tape popped up on Tumblr. The concept sold me immediately: A-1 pulls the classic “5 more minutes” routine, then gets to play hooky and watch all the best Nickelodeon and other kids shows if you were that age in the early/mid-90s. Through this conceptual lens, he flows fluidly about growing up, youth, and relationships over the album’s nine songs. “All That!” of course sees A-1 rapping over a beat taken from that show’s theme song, and damn if it don’t sound pleasantly familiar after something like 15 years off the air. “Black Ranger” is more a speed trial, but is still plenty entertaining as that wimpy guitar and corny synth of our favorite stolen Japanese superheroes rev up behind A-1’s voice. The songs are short enough that the simple “take a TV show theme, rap over it and draw parallels to my own life” doesn’t get aggravatingly repetitive.
Throughout After School Special, A-1 is vibrant , humorous and most definitely not trying the tuff routine. This isn’t the next Flockaveli by any means, but it’s a fun (and maybe slightly nostalgic, depending on how much Nick you watched as youngin’) bunch of tunes.
Album: After School Special
Release: 2010
Label: Self-Released
Tracklist:
1. 5 More Minutes (Intro)
2. The Price is Right
3. Charizard
4. All That!
5. Family Matters
6. Black Ranger
7. Golden Girls
8. Reading Rainbow
9. Goosebumps
10. Doug (Funnie Bitch)
Variety is the spice of life, and I’ve broken a cardinal rule of mine on ICDT: to never consecutively post records of the same genre. So after three heavy ones (Raw Radar War, Tribulation, and Anacrusis), I wanna switch gears entirely.
As established, hip-hop is not my biggest point of musical knowledge. While I am one of those whiteboys that loves Wu-Tang, and I have in fact met and conversed with Chuck D, I’m just not as up on the genre or its history as I should be. That said, I do occasionally browse around for stuff and have been stoked on a Milkcrate Breaks comp lately.
But I digress. A while back, this free tape popped up on Tumblr. The concept sold me immediately: A-1 pulls the classic “5 more minutes” routine, then gets to play hooky and watch all the best Nickelodeon and other kids shows if you were that age in the early/mid-90s. Through this conceptual lens, he flows fluidly about growing up, youth, and relationships over the album’s nine songs. “All That!” of course sees A-1 rapping over a beat taken from that show’s theme song, and damn if it don’t sound pleasantly familiar after something like 15 years off the air. “Black Ranger” is more a speed trial, but is still plenty entertaining as that wimpy guitar and corny synth of our favorite stolen Japanese superheroes rev up behind A-1’s voice. The songs are short enough that the simple “take a TV show theme, rap over it and draw parallels to my own life” doesn’t get aggravatingly repetitive.
Throughout After School Special, A-1 is vibrant , humorous and most definitely not trying the tuff routine. This isn’t the next Flockaveli by any means, but it’s a fun (and maybe slightly nostalgic, depending on how much Nick you watched as youngin’) bunch of tunes.
-Asa
1 comments:
I'm in the same boat, as far as hip-hop knowledge and street cred. Beats are an important part of my musical diet, though. If fools can actually flow, I'm always impressed. Stoked to check this out, thanks.
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