Rhymesayers
2006
The Death Of Frequent Flyer
About This Album
Mainstream female rappers are few and far between, and underground female rappers are even less common. Add this to the fact that Christalle Bowen, or Psalm One, doesn't only rhyme about her sexual prowess and her love of expensive things and you've got yourself something pretty unique, even rare. Over perfect underground beats -- melodic without being too poppy -- Psalm One spits about growing up in Chicago ("The Nine"), wack MCs (including female ones, emphasized in "Prelude to a Diss" and "Rapper Girls"), her previous day job as a scientist ("chemistry's feeding me, cuz I charge much less for my two EPs" goes the hook in "The Living," also echoed in "Beat the Drum"), and or course, her love of hip-hop ("Peanuts") with a smooth but punctuated flow, a bit like fellow Midwesterners and Rhymesayers labelmates Blueprint or P.O.S. Psalm, like any self-respecting rapper, makes sure to rep her hometown, but she makes sure she still maintains her own identity as well. "I ain't Com, I ain't Kanye," she says in the excellent title song, which features a verse from producer, MC, and Del sound-alike Thaione Davis, who uses cartoonish strings and crackling, quirky percussion to set the pace of the track.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,7,8,9,10 and 13)

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.