Jizzm HD taps 16 emcees for this beat changing tour-de-force – on deck are Styliztik Jones, Abstract Rude, Born Allah, Supernatural, Neb Luv, NGA Fish, Akil The MC, Rifelman, Medusa, Black Silver, Main Flor, Riddlore, Awol One, Otherwise, Mykill Miers, and Jizzm himself.
]]> http://www.hiphopsite.com/2011/05/02/jizzm-high-definition-speed-of-mind-the-ultimate-posse-cut/feed/ 0 http://www.hiphopsite.com/2009/07/03/video-awol-one-factor-darkness-destination/ http://www.hiphopsite.com/2009/07/03/video-awol-one-factor-darkness-destination/#comments Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:11:04 +0000 http://hhsblog.covelop.org/?p=500

There used to be an era when you’d never see someone like Awol One with a video. Now, thanks to sites like YouTube, Awol has dropped two more videos from his Xzibit executive produced Owl Hours LP (due July 21). Today’s generation doesn’t know how good they have it. – DJ Pizzo

    While AWOL is known to rock over gloomy soundscapes, he usually takes a stab at an upbeat song or two. Here, optimistic joints dominate the entire first quarter of the album. For the most part they hit their mark, most notably the Evidence-produced banger “Make” in which AWOL affirms, “We make money/ money doesn’t make us.” As the album begins to creep into its darker side with “S.O.T.F.” (That’s “Start Of The Finish”) featuring 2Mex and Circus, this Shapeshifter sounds more like himself alongside his crewmates. But AWOL may have taken too deep a plunge into the pit of despair on tracks like “Fatalove.” Produced by Tranducer, this number utilizes a haunting, synth-driven instrumental that sounds like it belongs on the soundtrack of an ’80s horror flick. “Realeyes” repeats the trend as AWOL lazily croons and raps over another low-tech Transducer production. By the albums’ climax, “Gagbuster”, a handful of L.A.’s Shapeshifters and Mass Men are summoned for this quirky posse cut that ends this album in yet another direction.

    While he’s known for his irregular nature on the mic, AWOL has never had this many mood swings on wax. When he says, “Some people treat me like my raps are scriptures because I capture the moment like a picture,” he isn’t lying. The thing is, the snapshots of his life and humanity that develop on this album are almost too varied. Regardless, this album definitely has its standouts (“Make”, “S.O.T.F.,” “Matters”, etc.). For a better overall representation of this raspy-voiced lyricist you may want to take a look back at his discography, which is one of the vastest in the L.A. underground.?

Adding to the oddity, is full production from KXLU 88.9FM (Loyla Marymount University) veteran disc jock, Mike Nardone (see: We Came From Beyond released earlier this year for more details). Nardone, responsible for exposing many a listening head to the likes of Freestyle Fellowship, Dilated Peoples, and more, is the West Coast’s finest college radio DJ – but behind the boards, he’s no Dre (we should know he’s not attempting that either). Given the time of its recording, personifies Awol One within the Shapeshifters mold of the late Nineties, as Nardone slashes strange bassline bubbles atop unkempt drum programming amidst a slew of simple brilliance and occasional agonizing atypicals.

Interestingly enough, also gathers a notable roster of other collaborators from Aceyalone, Abstract Rude, Ryu of Styles of Beyond, Sole (of Anticon), Kool Keith. and brother-from-another-mother, Circus. It’s within these joint ventures that this batch of weird songs are put into
percpective. Ab Rude finds a home twice, and leaves the most memorable imprint of all the guests that arrived. “Eye Am”, a smash-banger from the slept on compilation of a few years back is freshly revisited while “Dew Yew No”, a somber something, is marked as the album highlight just because of the trio’s suburb mesh (leaving the listener wondering what an
album of all 3 individuals together would bump like). Fellow A-Teamer, Aceyalone shows up during a pinnacle of harshness. Like a raw vein, exposed to the L.A. smog, “Public Bathroom” meanders around the subject of a female’s self-inflicted abortion in, of all places, a ‘public
bathroom’. The unimaginative and unprepared should probably slide past this one.

Alone though, is when Awol holds no feeling back, and perhaps with the time between this release and his more recent drops, his views towards himself and society have changed, this is
irregardless, for unadulterated angst, depression and morose ooze from song to song, from the most obvious to subtle ways. This is the Awol heads that know Awol came to love some time ago, he?s no different atop new beats or newer concepts, this is just his point of realization.

What makes this release so special is that even after all the cleaning up and primping out (assisted by ISP’s D-Styles), Awol remains the same Awol, just more audible and with a vastly improved bump. A track like “Rhythm” will pleasantly surprise longtime followers as well as draw in countless new fans, as the incorporation of club-friendly aesthetics and Blowdian-bred stylings make for an infectious marriage other crossover acts have failed repeatedly at (again, see Ras Kass). The bumps successfully continue with brash appeal on tracks like “Agony”, a headbanger of once again surprisingly results. The murky “Revolution” rolls subtlety with a softly crooning Awol modestly claiming “I make beautiful things fight each other, I make pretty things get ugly”. With an end result leading the listener to some simultaneous rewind/volume-pump action. Which could be said for throughout Souldoubt; Awol One and Daddy Kev collectively churn-out an album full of crisp, loveable music with unequivocally substantial rhymes happily meandering in all directions.

Souldoubt will open the closed heads of the past and bring them together with the faithful followers of the duration. Awol’s catalog is thick and sometimes difficult, this introduction will hopefully lead you on a journey to seek his often overlooked and misunderstood classics. From terribly sound quality to club-friendly bumps, the all encompassing Awolrus awaits you.