Veteran Chicago emcee and producer is back, following up his 2018 instrumental cassette Body Crayon on Icy Palms Records with the off the wall Drowning in an Exosuit: The Underwater Album. As what I would consider a pretty big fan of V8 TFD, I picked it up this morning and am bringing you my earliest impressions, after listening to the album at work.
For those of you not familiar with V8 (the voice alongside Morbidly-O's beats in Sludge Factorie), he is not for everyone. His subject matter, when it's clear which isn't always the case, can be fairly base and disgusting. He drops lines about drug use, sex, violence and serial killers (the track "Teardrop Tempest" opens with a fairly long vocal sample suggesting John Wayne Gacy didn't act alone...). He actually opens a release (I Had an Accident Records' Sludge Tape) with several minutes of someone being violently ill. His rhymes often don't, and a lot of his lyrics seem to be stream of consciousness ramblings that make very little sense when put together.
That said, his voice is (in my opinion) one of a kind. And the way he puts together songs is fairly unique as well. His work does remind me in a lot of ways of other abstract hip hop, the darker content and eerier delivery sets it apart, but the similarities are there. Sort of the auditory version of that artist who used to paint pictures with their own feces. The presentation and the media may be pretty foul but it's still a painting. And in this case I happen to think it's pretty good.
Drowning in an Exosuit is that same V8, this is not a polished version of the emcee I know, as can be the case with new releases in this day and age. From the over ten minute opening track "Take a Load Off Fanny" this tape is full of craziness and surprises. These songs often have several different producers, and they often veer completely off the rails at a moments notice. The production is interesting and ranges from electronic and fast paced to solemn and orchestral. The instrumental collage style is more prevalent than on 2017's One Dog Night (get that here, it's dope), with vocal samples stretching on for several minutes, followed by V8's creepy rants, slipping into instrumental interludes and back again. And honestly, one of the things that I love about hip-hop is it's found art roots. The DJ / producer is picking up pieces of someone elses work, and as a music fan, is putting it together in new and interesting ways. In that sense I really feel that hip-hop as a sampled art is a music for the real music fans.
I digress. I don't know how helpful this review is. To sum it up, if you know and hate V8, you'll hate this. If you like him you'll like this. But if you've never heard him and are open to some darker material, with a style unlike virtually anything else out there, give this tape a shot. It's a good one for new listeners.
Get the cassette from Icy Palms Records here on digital or physical, out now!
