Anti-Pop Consortium are the NYC based MC trio of Beans, Priest and M.Sayyid and producer/engineer Earl Blaize. "Tragic Epilogue" is theirdebut, 3 years in the making, and is obviously the product of learnedmen - former art students and serious hip hop fans who've paid theirdues in the underground spoken word and writing scenes. Anti-Popdon't seem concerned with the mainstream but they do expose all ofit's weaknesses out of necessity. Old school influence embraces theafter-future, musically and lyrically, to create something I've neverquite heard anyone do before. The complicated, tongue twisting rhymesof each MC calmly flow out of the speakers in a mind numbing yet beatprecise manner and may at times require a dictionary, thesaurus and afinger on the rewind button to decipher. Topics are far from limitedto the usual MC-isms and the occasional disses make most every otherdis you've ever heard sound generic in comparison. Blaize's productionis a fittingly sparse foundation of melody, low end and beats rich withalien atmospheres and interstellar sound bytes. Think minimal hip-hop.Think New York City. Think intelligent, imaginative and uniquely odd,minus the usual contrived genre cliches. "Tragic Epilogue" might bechapter one of the future of hip hop, or at least I hope it is. Thedigipack includes sharp liner notes by Greg Tate and a bonus cd-romwith some software and a slick quicktime video for "Sparadic" by 75 ArkRecords (75ark.com) label mates Encore. Also available from Anti-Popare remix singles for "Lift" and "What Am I? / Laundry".samples:
Read More
