Astralwerks / Emd
2004
Joyful Rebellion
About This Album
Anyone familiar with the frazzled beats and rhymes of K-Os' 2003 debut should have expected an even more ambitious next step. Fittingly, Joyful Rebellion adds further colors to the Toronto-based artist's palette of both rapping and singing, and emphasizes musical flourishes that were only sketches on Exit. He begins the album as a man given the manual with which to save hip-hop. Is it from God? Angels? Aliens? Unclear. But K-Os' philosophy allows for the force to be both one and three -- a brand new trinity -- as long as that mandate serves to enrich the minds of the world and its MCs. Heady stuff. But it's brought with engaging passion from K-Os, and his hybridized musical backgrounds point the rap form in intriguing directions. "Emcee Murdah" laments artistic stagnation and crass commercialization over acoustic guitars and a chorus break straight out of Arthur Lee and Love; the wiry reggae of "Crucial" examines similar themes, and suggests that contemporary hip-hop's populist plateau has separated from its once-vibrant root system. One of K-Os' most interesting positions on Rebellion is how conscious he is of keeping hip-hop pure even as he experiments.
Track List (try tracks 5 and 7)

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.

 
report abuse