Rhyming in the classic tradition of such tag-team duos as EPMD or Run DMC - new school MC’s Andy Cooper and Dizzy Dustin proceed take us to a place where Fresh is the Mode, not just a word to say.
Ugly Ducking may be a comical name for this crew, but it’s definitely a misnomer - nothing about this EP is ugly. Self-produced and featuring DJ scratches by Young Einstein; this crew’s Mode is made of witty rhymes and snappy beats. “Now Who’s Laughin’” is an ideal example: two different pianos loops are laid over a boom-kick and snare that leaves groove riders salivating, and references to classic shit that will crack a smile to any hip-hop head that’s in the know. The only downside of this song is that at two minutes and fifty seconds long, it’s too short!
“..provide a way to get from point A to point B, so I can see, my way through this Stratego / I gotta put the group before my ego / cause sometimes we bump heads like NFL linemen..” – Dizzy Dustin, “Get on This”
Perhaps the most refreshing thing about the Mode of Fresh that Ugly Duckling displays is their constant stream (of conciousness) references to their favorite rap records. The crew displays this devotion to rap’s true school on “Do You Know What I’m Sayin?” by intermingling classic lines from KRS-ONE, K-Solo, and Big Daddy Kane one right after another and changing up the endings with clever word substitution.
“..in the end times, breakin it down like enzymes, to package and send rhymes / to another galaxy, as a proton - I split ‘em into catastrophe, and so on, and so on..” – Andy Cooper, “Everything’s Alright”
I’ll even let Andy get away with flipping Nas’ rhyme from “Live at the BBQ” - he changes it to “when I was twelve, I went to heaven for lovin Jesus”. What? Nah kid, go ‘head with your good self. You can’t blame them for being positive when they’re so positively Fresh.
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1 January, 1999@12:00 am
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