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PJ Harvey | Let England Shake

CD Reviews

Review: Rite Hook | E.ye A.ssume D.amage

If it came out that Rite Hook had mysteriously suffocated his baby sister 15 years ago, his fans wouldn't likely be surprised. The Worcester-Boston MC is the kind of dude who tattoos himself, recreationally chokes on half-gram "gaggers," inseminates despicable local groupies, and writes about said activities when he wakes up in the morning.

Every word that Rite Hook rips rings with utter disgust; he doesn't speak words so much as fire them into an imaginary spittoon. That attitude kicks in on "Go for the Eyes" — a melodramatically bent send-off — and carries on through the characteristically degenerate "Bathroom Floor."

On the downside, Hook could use some better hooks — sometimes you wish he'd just rhyme through the whole track instead of taking 30 seconds out to tell heads to go fuck themselves. His other potential pitfall — that he sounds too much like Slaine — never materializes, however. The Slipwax-produced "Belly Full of Poison," a piano-pumped cut that features Boston's white king of drugs and drama, displays how — despite their mutual depravity and reluctance to pronounce the letter "r" — Hook and Slaine both deliver distinguishable cause and cadence.

The beats here complement Hook's gifted raspy monotone stride. Falside comes through in serious ways — particularly on "Beaten Badly," a Stoupe-inspired symphony that could be the song they play on hold at mental hospitals. Comparable standouts are the Matty Trump–spun "My Drugs" — which finds Hook and Tame One slicing rails with each other — and Napalm's "Wet Dream," an '80s flashback that could be a hipster sensation in the hands of the right DJs. You never know — things are so fucked these days that E.A.D. could splash outside sociopathic hip-hop circles.