Before I get into this review, as you have to be aware unless there's
something wrong with you today is election day. Maybe one of the most
important elections in our country's history. I have made no secret of
my leanings when it comes to the current state of America, nobody has
benefited from Trump's bungling, clown-on-crack "leadership" style except
Trump and those like him (maybe not even them, it remains to be seen). How he's convinced anyone that we're better
off now than we were in 2016 fucking mystifies me.
Get out and
vote, and even if you like the state of our nation now, please consider
what Trump's dismantling of the checks and balances our country's
founders put in place to limit the power of the executive office might
mean for the future of this nation. Maybe you think Trump isn't so bad.
But sooner or later we'll wind up with someone who is, and he can now
use precedence Trump has set to abuse executive orders, benefit from
treasonous foreign collusion and pocket taxpayer money all while
ignoring Congress to bully his plans into action. We're one step closer
to fascism thanks to the orange buffoon, and in four more years who can say how many more protections set in place to make our country different from the monarchy we rebelled to escape will have been ignored into irrelevance?
That's that, now here's this.
Phantom Thrett is a one in a million rapper. I can't emphasize enough how talented of a poet this man is. You may have read my review of his performance opening for R.A.P. Ferreira, but this is my first time highlighting one of his releases [they're all amazing and available for mostly very low prices on his Bandcamp (see the customary link at the bottom of the page)]. However, since we try to talk more about recent releases here I'm going to focus on his new mixtape, Loose Leaves 2. I feel like UGF needs to publish some support for someone as clearly skilled and dedicated to the art as Thrett is, and this record is a great introduction to his unique and immersive take on hip hop.
Thrett's sound is hard to pin down. With a production style and preference that consists of lo-fi, slowed down jazz samples and dusty drums his tracks tend to offer the listener the sonic equivalent of a hot summer night on the outskirts of a thriving metropolis, and an approach to writing that jumps effortlessly between sleepy raps and syrupy R & B influenced singing. I feel like Thrett's work is a time travel experience through urban music's dense and layered history. His albums offer something rare in hip hop, and that is I believe a sound that could get older folks who look down on rap interested in it as a real and vital form of artistic expression. His spoken word poetry is beautiful, emotionally deep and relatable. Listening to his music almost always makes me feel good, even when it makes me feel good about feeling bad. Does that make any sense? If it does than I think you may like him as much as I do.
As a concert goer I was very impressed with the level of wisdom and enlightenment present in the songs he performed. Thrett seems uniquely gifted at capturing the human experience through words in a way that is both ingenious and easy to grasp. I feel like that is an extremely difficult thing to do properly, sometimes rappers demonstrate intelligence through the obfuscation of what is basically an inherent lack of meaning in their tracks (not naming any names, and not even judging this approach to writing, I feel like confusing for the sake of confusing definitely has it's place in music, especially if that place is alongside a psychedelic of some sort). Thrett however writes lines that have you saying to yourself "holy shit I never thought of it like that but he's totally right!" And you can pick up those nuggets of wisdom through casual listening, and needless to say less casual listening can be extremely rewarding.
Loose Leaves 2 is a mixtape style collection of tracks recorded through the second half of October, so these are fresh out the oven and relevant to our experience of the day. With production mostly handled by Jippy and not Thrett himself this is slightly different from what he's offered in the past, but with that said I don't mind too much. Songs like "Caviar" and "Built This Way" offer production that brings out some of Thrett's smoothest jams yet. All of the production is melodic and slowed down, and works wonders whether he sings or raps over them. The songs are all very short, in fact the entire record is 17 tracks and less than a half hour long, but the vignette style fits well with his poetry and allows him to pop up, make statements both humble and earth shattering, then disappear again. This is in line with the description of the album, Thrett is the most well known unknown, he offers his art and vanishes from the scene. Makes me feel blessed to have gotten the chance to hear him live.
So that's about it for today. I just finished listening to this record while gearing up for the day, between exercising, brushing my teeth and feeding the cat. I feel spiritually fit, mellowed out and eager to get started with the rest of my weekend (this was written Sunday morning). There's nothing wrong with music that makes you feel damn good sometimes, especially when it comes in such a smart and professional package.
Get Loose Leaves 2 from Thrett's Bandcamp page here! The write up for this album is straight up gold status poetry as well by the way, read it.
