The Phoenix Network:
 
 
About  |  Advertise
 
Big Hurt  |  CD Reviews  |  Classical  |  Jazz  |  Live Reviews  |  Music Features
Best2012Vote-1000x50

Sleep | Hesitation Wounds

Strange Famous (2009)
By CHRIS FARAONE  |  June 16, 2009
3.0 3.0 Stars
090622_sleep_main
On the subterranean-rap-hustle manifesto "Get It," from his new Hesitation Wounds, Portland (Oregon) MC Sleep rhymes, "I'll murder a set. . . . I'm kind of a big deal, you just ain't heard of me yet." This is especially true on the East Coast, where the prominent Oldominion crew that Sleep helped found a decade ago have yet to register with many heads who don't masturbate to rare Hieroglyphics album covers. That's unfortunate — especially for fast-rap aficionados who enjoy doseone tangents and Tonedeff mechanics.

A gifted motormouth with tangible content and metaphors galore, Sleep doesn't rap for kids who pretend they know what El-P is talking about. He represents the melodic underground, where beats challenge but rarely overpower. There's no sugar here, but spoonfuls of organic-sounding drums and choral hooks make his medicine go down smoothly.

It took six listens before Hesitation Wounds activated my neurons. (Okay, I was cruising for bangers on the first few spins.) As it turns out, Sleep's melodramatically symphonic third solo outing is intended as a front-to-back, all-or-nothing experience. That said, "Orchestra of Strangers" and "Lothar" with Del tha Funkee Homosapien could stand alone and maybe even excite the most pedestrian of hip-hop palettes.
Related: Review: The Roots of Hip-Hop, Ivory and ebony, The Big Hurt: Billboard Top Hip-Hop and R and B songs, More more >
  Topics: CD Reviews , Entertainment, Hip-Hop and Rap, Music,  More more >
| More

 Friends' Activity   Popular   Most Viewed 
[ 02/11 ]   Toxic Holocaust + English Dogs + The Casualties + Havok  @ Middle East Downstairs
[ 02/11 ]   69˚S [The Shackleton Project]  @ Paramount Theatre
[ 02/11 ]   Boston Lyric Opera conducted by David Angus  @ John F. Kennedy Library and Museum
ARTICLES BY CHRIS FARAONE
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   J THE S | THE LAST DAYS  |  February 07, 2012
    J the S has been promising The Last Days since he went by Jake the Snake.
  •   HE WILL NOT BE MOVED  |  February 03, 2012
    A few months ago, Boston hip-hop vet Marco Antonio Ennis stepped into a home studio in Dorchester to cut a verse for an old friend's teenage son.
  •   WILL GOVERNOR PATRICK STRIKE OUT?  |  January 25, 2012
    Governor Deval Patrick used part of Monday's State of the Commonwealth address to break his public silence on pending law-enforcement legislation.
  •   OCCUPYING THE NEW HAMPSHIRE PRIMARY  |  January 11, 2012
    The nation's first presidential primary isn't new terrain for activists.
  •   KENJI NAKAYAMA TAKES AN AGE-OLD CRAFT TO NEW PLACES  |  January 11, 2012
    This winter, the Butera School of Art in Back Bay commences its last-ever sign-making classes, teaching students how to hand-letter everything from yachts to mom-and-pop shops.

 See all articles by: CHRIS FARAONE

MOST POPULAR
RSS Feed of for the most popular articles
 Most Viewed   Most Emailed