rebelmatic

The album opens with “Get Up N Go” which, along with “Reckless Eyeballin,” is one of the two remakes of songs from his 2007 album Hustle to Be Free. I say ‘remake’ and not ‘remix’ because the songs are re-recorded from the ground up and feel as if this is how they were supposed to sound all along. It’s a proper kickoff to an album that carries a sense of epic-ness far greater than any synth-based faux-film score beat cluttering countless rap albums today. It gives an added strength to Creatur...

The album opens with “Get Up N Go” which, along with “Reckless Eyeballin,” is one of the two remakes of songs from his 2007 album Hustle to Be Free. I say ‘remake’ and not ‘remix’ because the songs are re-recorded from the ground up and feel as if this is how they were supposed to sound all along. It’s a proper kickoff to an album that carries a sense of epic-ness far greater than any synth-based faux-film score beat cluttering countless rap albums today. It gives an added strength to Creatures lyrics which marry the social outrage of punk with the class struggle of rap, best exemplified on “Set Myself on Fire” where he asserts “Poverty ain’t paradise in a room full of parasites.” Genre-bending has seldom sounded so natural, and the first 2/3 of this album achieve it well. But it’s how polished the best moments are that make the lesser ones stick out. Both “Close as Strangers” and “Ballad of the Cyclops” capture the bleakness and despair of this pre-apocalyptic New York dystopia perfectly, making the call-to-arms “Silent Alarm” and the heavy-handed “Wet Baby” almost redundant. On an album that makes such a punk rock effort to deliver the bare-essentials, they tack on unnecessary fat to the tenderloin. Otherwise, the album succeeds in not being a rap album for punks or a punk album for hip-hoppers, but just being a great Rebelmatic album. That alone makes it a hard album to recommend because the thick musical roots seem strong enough to trip any potential genre converts and since the fierce unapologetic politics might prove an obstacle for Creature to win Kid Rock’s audience, a full fledged crossover seems somewhat out-of-the-question. I doubt this is what the man was aiming for in the making of Prey For the Vulture, but for the P.O.S. or Bad Brains crowd wanting their “stereotypes with a side order of rebellion,” this album will bring the nest they built in the ashes of CBGB’s together perfectly.