At a time when its vogue to go solo and with large crew outfits going the way of N’ Sync (bye, bye, bye) the massive Boston, MA collective Electric (Insight, Anonymous, Dagha, Moe Pope & Raheem) is bound to draw comparisons to left coast counterparts Jurassic 5 in both structure, foundation (similar to J5′s self-titled EP debut, Electric’s debut, Life’s A Struggle, clocks in at just over 38-minutes) and their true school mentality.

     Fronted by talented and underrated producer/emcee, Insight, Electric win by exhibiting the aptitude to balance meaty substance, “Life Is A Struggle”, and the breezy Soul Supreme produced “Respect Life” with lighthearted odes (“Late Show” and the fuck a day job ode “Relax Today”) that remain pensive without losing their sense of humor.

      Though Electric exudes a well-formed chemistry (“Levitate/Goodnight”), the hot potato aspect of juggling so many personas within a group structure does not prohibit them from making their individual presences known; exemplified by the playground gymnastics of “Can’t Stop”, as behind a whirlwind of percussion and cut up vocal snippets from Guru and Doug E. Fresh each member shines on separate verses, punctuated by Moe Pope’s “I zig zag thru times too define the mind pendulum/and hula-hoop a four bar loop while front pedaling/I’m like the Monk Thelonious when I’m meddling/and current affair seekers withheld like some Entenmanns’s/my enemy is not decided by the president/or news coverage/transmitted to your residence/brainwash your thoughts thru your dummy box/its just like your smoking funny rocks/to bleed your money stocks.”   

With a hook that’s just too infectious to shake, on “Where Would You Be” Electric poses the question “Where would you be without the Electric Company”? For one, a lot further away from the core elements of hip-hop’s past…