A lot of electronic-based musicians and producers make reference tojazz music and its instrumentation in their sampling and arranging;mostly from the post-bop and cool eras. For a good chunk of this disc,Los Angeles hip hop producer Daddy Kev (aka Kevin Marques Moo)stretches the backing tracks to the far reaches in a true free-jazzspirit. Kev combines soloing drums, upright bass, funky loops, guitarruns and other ambient sounds with precise turntable manipulationprovided by D-Styles. The unique voice of MC Awol One plays off ofthese tracks with free-association/spoken word riffs that range fromhumorous to serious for a new take on beat poetry (no pun intended).Tracks such as "Finger Paint with Bloodlike War Paint," "Grey Skys inPsycho-Delic RGB," and "Buyin' Friends on Ebay" kick along to steadyrhymes and beats with quotes from orchestras, saxophone and piano."Idiot Savant Autistic Delivery" opens with a spoken-word sample aboutplaying free music that Awol One throws in his own dialogue to give asense of conversation. Steady hi-hat lays down a groove for FenderRhodes and bass to convey an all too brief 70s soundtrack for a copshow chase sequence that is scratched with vocal samples. As jazz andrap are said to be closely related, it was just a matter of time beforefree jazz and fusion made their way into the hybrid of hip hop soprominently.
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