Los Angeles' rapper Mike Eagle was a member of
the rap trio Thirsty Fish
with fellow rappers Jonathan "Dumbfoundead" Park and
Michael "Psychosiz" Greenwood, the latter
already active as Customer Service with two albums,
Please Hold (2005) and
Free Y-Not (2009).
They released Testing the Waters (2007) and Watergate (2011).
Meanwhile, Open Mike Eagle had already debuted solo with
Unapologetic Art Rap (2010) and continued with Rappers Will Die of Natural Causes (2011), characterized by his nerdy-satirical approach to contemporary issues (bordering on theater of the absurd).
After 4nml Hsptl (2012), a collaboration with a producer named Awkward,
Open Mike Eagle delivered his best album yet,
Dark Comedy (2014), not shy to deliver
sharp sociopolitical commentary.
The raps include the hilarious Doug Stamper,
Big Pretty Bridges and
Dark Comedy Morning Show, and
creative beats highlight
Golden Age Raps (with Cohen Beats, aka Israeli producer Michael Cohen),
Thirsty Ego Raps (with Detroit producer Illingsworth) and
Idaho (produced by Kenny Segal).
A worthwhile appendix, possibly outdoing anything in the album, surfaced on the label compilation Persona (2015):
Celebrity Reduction Prayer, produced by Amir "Oddisee" Khalifa.
After collaborating with English producer Paul White
on Hella Personal Film Festival (Mello Music, 2016), Eagle
crafted the bleak concept album Brick Body Kids Still Daydream (2017)
about the last days of a housing project about to be demolished;
a somber, nostalgic and at times heartbreaking
parade of realistic portraits of the people he grew up with.
The best songs
((How Could Anybody) Feel at Home, My Auntie's Building)
embody
the psychological destruction of memory as well as the physical destruction of the demolition process. It was a demonstration that "nerdy" hip-hop can be
as powerful as a two-hour documentary.
(Copyright © 2020 Piero Scaruffi | Terms of use )
|
(Translation by/ Tradotto da Damiano Langone)
Il
rapper losangelino Open Mike Eagle esordisce nel trio Thirsty Fish con gli
album Testing The Waters (Bell Rang,
2005) e Watergate (Mush, 2011) -
insieme a Jonathan "Dumbfoundead" Park e Micheal
"Psychosiz" Greenwood (quest'ultimo gi attivo sotto il nome di
Customer Service con gli album Please
Hold, 2005, e Free Y-Not, 2009)
- per poi intraprendere la carriera solista.
Il
suo album di debutto, Unapologetic Art
Rap (Mush, 2010), e il successivo Rappers
Will Die Of Natural Causes (Hellfyre Club, 2011) mettono nel mirino i temi
della contemporaneit con un approccio derisorio da nerd che sfiora il teatro
dell'assurdo. Dopo 4nml Hsptl (Fake
Four, 2012), in collaborazione con il produttore Awkward, Open Mike Eagle
raggiunge ottimi risultati con Dark
Comedy (Mello Music, 2014), album di graffiante satira sociopolitica: fra i
rap pi divertenti troviamo Doug Stamper,
Big Pretty Bridges e Dark Comedy Morning Show, mentre i beat
pi creativi sono quelli di Golden Age
Raps (con il produttore israeliano Michael "Cohen Beats" Cohen), Thirsty Ego Raps (prodotto da
Illingsworth) e Idaho (prodotto da
Kenny Segal). Dello stesso periodo, ma inserito nella compilation Persona (Mello Music, 2015), il brano
Celebrity Reduction Prayer (prodotto
da Amir "Oddisee" Khalifa), forse persino superiore alle migliori
cose di Dark Comedy.
Dopo
aver collaborato con il produttore inglese Paul White per Hella Personal Film Festival (Mello Music, 2016), Open Mike Eagle
realizza il desolato concept Brick Body
Kids Still Daydream (Mello Music, 2017), incentrato sugli ultimi giorni di
un quartiere di case popolari prima della demolizione: una parata di ritratti,
ora solenni, ora nostalgici, ora persino angoscianti, dedicati alle persone con
cui il rapper cresciuto. Le canzoni migliori, come (How Could Anybody) Feel At Home e My Auntie's Building, danno corpo sia alla distruzione psicologica
delle persone private dei propri luoghi che alla distruzione fisica dello
spazio urbano. Questo lavoro peraltro la dimostrazione che l'album di un rapper-nerd
pu essere tanto efficace e significativo quanto un lungo documentario
realizzato con tutti i crismi.
|