For today we have two new singles from the Denver legends Time and Awareness as Calm., with a period at the end (very important). I got an email from Time himself just in "time" for my Tuesday post, and knowing what an overall decent dude and hardworking artist he is (along with his labelmates as the Dirty Laboratory) I felt the need to share about it. Awesomely enough the first single "To Live and Die in Dystopia" also features Myka 9, so there's a lot to be excited about here. By now I expect you've already watched the video above, so you've heard that first song. Here's what I think about it.
PART 1: To Live in Die and Dystopia feat. Niko Is & Myka 9:
To sum it up, this song is about paranoia, and how the modern world fosters it on a daily basis. Also, is it paranoid when you might be right? We've allowed it to get to the point where virtually every schizophrenic delusion can now exist, from the Air Loom to microchips in our bodies. Disgusting and disturbing, and there are few rappers more equipped to speak on these topics than Time. Over an eerie and chilling piano driven beat, the three rappers each spit a verse, given room to breath by vocal samples that do nothing to alter the songs thoroughly dark and disturbing disposition.
The big surprise here is Niko Is. Damn this guy kills it right? Not to mention a weird and totally unexpected Rush reference, which you might or might not have caught (I happen to listen to classic rock all day at work these days, because it's that or Top 40 and I swear Lewis Capaladi or whatever his name is may be my least favorite person in history right now). Great voice (were back to Niko now, not Lewis), interesting style with a seriously rugged delivery. I've never heard anything from this dude before, but I'm definitely gonna be looking into his work from here. Time takes up the torch immediately following, and it may be one of his most brutally executed verses yet. My personal favorite line: "The right brothers made planes the wrong brothers made drones", but there's a lot to love here. An instant classic verse by Myka closes the song, full of his quirky and strange delivery with a deep rumbling voice. No one does stream of consciousness quite like Myka, and his contribution is like a poem written by a crashing computer. Unsettling and dope as hell.
So I loved this song. Stream it here:
It's not available for download publicly, but I have it on good authority that if you go here, contact Time and ask nicely you can get either MP3's or WAV's. He's also a great dude overall so it's worth making that connection. Also while you're there check out his extensive catalogue of music, he's very unique, creative and woke. In the wake of all these guys turning out to be worse than we could hope, he truly strikes me as one of the good ones so support with confidence.
PART 2: Learn to Die:
I have to say on first listen I wasn't as instantly impressed with this one as with the first single. On my second listen I'm getting a bit more out of it. Basically it's a song about, ironically, learning to live. Time discusses his usual topics, poverty, depression and disillusionment and how we can continue to be good in a world where we sometimes feel like we can't escape these things. The beat is fairly good, Awareness has done some interesting things with the drums and the sample is beautiful and somber. Overall though I have to say the whole thing seems just a bit rushed. It would make a good interlude stye track on a full length or EP, but released as a single it seems to be missing something. Not that any part of it isn't good necessarily, it just doesn't stand on it's own very well. Maybe in the future there'll be a third verse to tie everything together, or a hook? Either way, not a bad offering for free streaming or download (maybe, see above).
Stream "Learn to Die" here:
That's it for today, thanks for reading! A quick note, I know I said a few weeks ago I wanted to promote more music from minority rappers, which sometimes doesn't happen as much as it should on the indie rap web, and then I went and did three posts in a row (well, Object Beings having Doseone maybe counts, I dunno) promoting Caucasian rappers. I have an idea for a Friday post that should get things back on track though. Just know I haven't forgotten what I said, or what's been happening in America for a few months now.
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