Album review: Slug & Murs – Felt 3: A Tribute to Rosie Perez

As part of my music/content aggregation, I’ll start giving you a heads up when I write elsewhere and it’s somewhat noteworthy. I don’t think I’ve announced on HaterPlayer before but I started writing a bi-weekly hip-hop column for indie rock blog, Jezebel Music. A friend from school became editor of the blog and asked me to contribute. It’s been interesting in a few different ways like for one, sorta having a deadline. But mostly, it just gives me license to regurgitate ideas that I hear from smarter hip-hop bloggers/writers. Have a gander, leave a comment (which I guess is like a rarity outside of my preferred blog circles):

Wow, so I guess I missed the part where writers, critics, hipsters, and hip-hop heads stopped giving a shit about either Atmosphere, Murs, or Aesop Rock. I found this out as I was in the process of reviewing Felt 3: A Tribute to Rosie Perez. The album is the latest in a series of collaborations between Slug of Atmosphere and Murs in which they choose one producer for the whole album (this time around, it’s Aesop Rock) and loosely dedicate it to a bodacious cult favorite celebrity woman (the first two were tributes to Christina Ricci and Lisa Bonet). It really screams “Gimmick!” But you’d think with all this gimmickry on its side, the project would make some blip on the critical and collective radar and I’d be able to steal ideas from a bunch of other reviews of the project to write my own review, like I usually do. But no, all these critics and writers had to be selfish and leave me to form an original opinion. Those bastards!

All three artists must be painfully aware of these shifting attitudes towards their music. But as it turns out, Felt 3 isn’t a last-ditch attempt by these three former critical darlings to regain the love and adoration that is now gone. Instead, the album is a series of “Fuck You’s” to haters of all varieties.

The Parent ‘Hood Sure-Shots

I actually managed to think of two different Father’s Day posts. The first, which I threw up @ Examiner, collects tracks that rappers make with their kids. But a few of those are kinda lame. Here’s some good music centered around parenthood in some way, though one of them isn’t about a father exactly. But yknow, Ghostface can get away with that:

Lil Wayne “How Can Something“
The mixtape Weezy details love, divorce, and the loss of his daughter in the aftermath of that divorce. I can’t imagine anyone, even staunch Lil Wayne haters (who still exist), not feeling this track and not acknowledging that Wayne is a huge talent.

“My babygirl thought I was fuckin every little freak
But darling, I was raised by a woman, that ain’t the real me
Still she managed to spill out a little me
Watched them doctors wipe the blood from her little feet.”

Just as important as the lyrics are Wayne’s pained, stressed, perpetually on the verge of breaking down delivery (the same delivery from “Duffle Bag Boy” and “My Life“) that sells it.

Bonetism > Baduizm

I stayed home on Friday night and watched TV. This makes it sooooooo worth it. I’m glad to know Chris Rock was sprung off Denise Huxtable/Lisa Bonet too. I wonder what would’ve happened if she had had a fetish for rappers like Erykah does. Would we have had more Electric Circuses and Love Belows or more Felts? Oh, we can only dream …

DOWNLOAD: Lisa (Never Easty On My Nextel) | Bonet (Cement Angels) | Dirty Girl