The opposite extreme, is the head who despises Anticon. The kid who was raised on conventional hip-hop, whether it’s as underground as Dilated Peoples, as gangsta as Dr. Dre, or as jiggy as Biggie. While these heads have been exposed to probably more hip-hop music than the seventeen-year-old Anticon worshipper, the sound of Sole and company is so far from street level hip-hop they are used to, that they can’t even grasp it.

I’d like to think of myself as one of the few listeners that falls into the center of these two extremes. I’ve watched and inadvertently helped the career of Sole, when I noticed his talent in the early days of Live Poets, by pubbing it on this website and in college radio land. I’m still a fan of Sole’s woefully penned rhymes about love, hate, and hip-hop, but I also am among those who get lost in the space of some of the other members’ complexity.

Enter The Giga Single, a seventeen-track odyssey for the price of a 12-inch. Working as this year’s introductory piece for the Anticon family, its purpose is not to generate papes, but instead to get their names out. Each of the crew are equally represented best on the Giga theme-song, “We Ain’t Fessin’”, an Unkle-esque track that gives just enough shine to each member, still remaining somewhat bound in accessibility. Many of the solo offerings are more introspective to each character in the Anticon universe, some more interesting than others. Sole vents with thought provoking, crucial poetics on “Silence”, while Buck 65 plays the part well of a deranged and introverted “Pen Thief”. Sage Francis will amaze you with his conversational cadences on the depressing “Inherited Scars”, as will Alias on the equally drowsy, yet almost bouncy “Watching Water”.

Many of the aforementioned tracks pack production that remains a little more down to earth, perfectly capturing the ambience of the lyrics. But when things really start going against the grain, it works to Anticon’s disadvantage. Tracks like “Pedestrian For Vessel ” (Brandon), suffer from production that first assumes the listener doesn’t care about how musically unstable or off-key that it is. Meanwhile, selections like “You’ll Know Where Your Plane Is” (Why) and “My Way Out Of A Paper Bag” (Themselves) attempt styles so awkward that the listener doesn’t much care to work at deciphering the lyrics.

Otherwise, when Anticon wants to keep the attention of the “not-so-advanced listener”, they can do it well. Recognize that this isn’t at all hip-hop for the casual listener, and to some, because the ghetto element has been extracted, this isn’t even hip-hop. But when listening to this unclassified form of boom-bap, realize you have to pay close attention to every word that is spit to enjoy it. While you may not want to put this much work into your daily hip-hop listening sessions, when the music and style is delivered correctly, it just might be worth the effort.

For starters, there’s the collaborative cut “Rainmen” by the Deep Puddle Dynamics. A heavy grooving bassline is the only thing that cements the lyrics to the track, but with lyrics like “you’re lost, between mold, and the mildew/if you spit that verse with bullets and tits I wouldn’t feel you” it really doesn’t NEED anything else. Brutal? You bet. In Sole’s own words, “walkin the fine fabric of time between Neitzche and Ice Cube, fuck alla y’all, never liked any of y’all in the first place.” Worrrrrrd.

“Savior?” rocks this same flavor, which seems to be what Anticon does best – collaborative groups over heavy bass. This time, Eyedea, Slug, and Sole split the mic time. Not really for the casual listener, this song is a deep meditation on self-awareness. Slug sums this up by saying, “Sometimes I reflect, sit, and wish that I was ignorant/ unaware of the poison, so I could enjoy sippin it” while Eyedea begs “for the mothership spacecraft to take me away from this purposeless Earth/shit it’s worthless”. This is hip-hop on a scale of pessimism previously unimagined.

Some of these songs though fail on the same basis “It’s Them” by Them attempts to syncopate each word with the beat, and then fade vocally in and out with the music, and then.. well, it’s just overreaching. It’s technically well executed, but it comes off forced. “Simulated Snow”. by Sixtoo actually has the same problem: he starts the second verse alliterating and just seems to be trying too hard, and his vocal has Guru’s monotone without his redeeming qualities.

Surprisingly, most of the albums lightest and dare I say happiest moments come during the interludes, apparently scratched by DJ Signify (the only Anticon turntablist credited in the liner notes). These songs plus his solo “Meditations” leave you yearning for more. Ultimately, this album both succeeds and fails for the same reason: it’s HEAVY. After hearing Buck 65 rap about wallowing in his own drunken pity, you may actually want to listen to a Mack 10 record just to cheer up. Sometimes the heavy- handedness works; most often on cuts featuring Sole, their most able and freeform lyricist. At other times, they just seem to be trying too hard to be morbid.