Monday, February 27, 2006
I admit that I usually will always take a good pop song over a rap song, and that in fact, I don't really listen to rap all that much. One of my few exceptions though is the rapper Sole on Anticon, today's most prestigious label in the field of indie-rap. Sole, now in his late 20's, has been recording his raps since the age of 15 back in Portland, Maine. The album I have by him is called "Learning to Walk." The album, quite appropriately titled, showcases the youthful talents of Sole, containing older material from 1994-1998, but still has a surprisingly mature sound. I think he however does possess a sort of youtful arrogance on some of this record in such lines as "The only competition I know is battling my echo" on standout track "Respect", but he has the rhymes to back up his allegations. Lyrical masterpieces accompanied by sharp beats, and at times the piano, rap gems are scattered throughout the entire album. Seriously, I'm not a huge fan of rap, but I still love Sole. When Sole's just "busting a soul-ill soliloquy", it's impossible not to admire and marvel at his intelligence and rapping talents. It's really frightening to think that this was his early work, I cannot wait to hear his work nowadays.
Anyways, here's the Rapidshare link to "Learning to Walk".
Check him out because "he's taking hip-hop fans like grains of sand":
http://rapidshare.de/files/14297022/Sole_-_Learning_to_Walk.rar.html
With a new generation of white rappers like Why?, Aesop Rock, Sole, and umm....that other guy, the genre of rap is expanding, and dominating music culture. But as Sole says:
"I'd rather be broke and have a whole lot of respect."
