It's been a little while since I dropped a regular review, so I figured I'd let you know about a newish project (came out late April so I guess it's been a bit) by one of my favorite rappers going back decades. Pigeon John, the reason you probably listened to L.A. Symphony and the man behind those juicy hooks that turned songs like "Never Fold" by Acid Reign into instant hits has finally released a follow up to 2017's Rap Record after hitting us with a single here and there on his Bandcamp. Gotta Good Feelin' is the result, and it is a fantastic offering from the strange and lovable rapper. And in these days and times when you feel like you can't trust the artists you love to be decent fucking human beings, I think Pigeon John is at least one indie rapper who is the nice guy he comes across as. I hope I'm right.
I'm gonna keep this brief (I know when I say this by now most of you probably laugh, but I truly mean it this time) as it's been a bit since I listened to this, but I'm trying to promote more music from Black artists and this has been one of the best records by a Black rapper that I've listened to that came out within a reasonable length of time anyway, so here it goes.
Pigeon John has slowly been evolving from a rapper with a tendency to sing to a folk rock emcee with a very obvious collection of Beatles and James Brown records squirreled away somewhere. From the fantastic Pigeon John & the Summertime Pool Party onward he's done more and more pop and rock influenced songs although always with his hip hop roots clear and unmistakable. I still think his most interesting attempt at this fusion was 2010's Dragon Slayer. However, with Gotta Good Feelin' I feel like he's crafted his signature sound into a more accessible and catchy formula that really gets the heads nodding.
From the cover to the sounds we get on this record the Beatles come to mind, although 60's R&B can be heard on tracks like one of my personal favorites "Good to You". The production is top notch and hits hard while presenting excellent melodies that allow John to both rap like a maniac and sing his signature hooks. The concepts are mostly danceable pop hits although songs like "Open Sesame" speak about the wonders of music, and the closing song "Without You" is a touching and amazingly catchy love song to his lady. This record doesn't deliver a different Pigeon John than we're used to, but it does deliver a collection of tracks that makes you wonder sometimes why the man isn't as famous as... (name a famous rapper for me these days, preferably one who doesn't deserve it. Yeah that guy.).
Overall a record like this is important in these times. While we should all keep our eyes on the prize and our head in the game we can't be useful to anyone if we allow the state of things to render us hopeless. There's gotta be a world worth living on the other side of this, and we can't lose sight of that. When the twin leviathans of an invisible and deadly disease and an all too visible and even more deadly plague of violence and hatred against our fellow Americans of color has us in a hole we feel unable to climb out of there's no harm I think in some escapist fun before we get back to work building a brighter future. Especially when you can directly support a Black artist who's been an influential and enduring presence in a scene as diverse and powerful as the L.A. hip hop one is.
Get Pigeon John's new collection of songs preferably direct from his website here, or wherever else you buy / stream music today!
The CD of this was poorly burned :(
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