Cape Verde

by Super Chron Flight Brothers

To people who complain about the lack of innovation in hip-hop these days, the first group I would hold up as a counter-example is the Super Chron Flight Brothers.  This group, consisting of rappers billy woods and Priviledge, consistently push themselves to find new flows, or to rap over increasingly experimental beats.

On this twenty-song album, they work with their usual producers, Bond, Willie Green, and Nasa (only one track), and their sound has not so much improved or matured, as become more rich.

The album is peppered with TV clips and samples that fall into a few broad categories - 80s TV, infomercials (I'm pretty sure that's Vince, the SlapChop guy I hear on the third track), and post-Obama racial pride gone wrong ("The minute Obama became president?  I got the right to do the Hell I want to," proclaims a teenage girl who goes on to describe her activities in group sex and fighting on 'Strangers With Candy'). 

Lyrically, woods and Edge are as incredible as always.  They extend their verses long beyond the standard 8 or 16 bars, letting their material determine song length.  They are not as literary here as they have been in the past, but their lines are highly intelligent and usually need a couple of listens in order to catch every nuance.  The focus on this album is on how media-saturated we are, as they call out TV Republicans and bad hiphop.

The SCF Brothers are joined by long-standing allies like Zesto, MarQ Sekt, Vordul Mega, and HiCoup.  Less familiar collaborators include Masai Bey, Lord Superb, Pastense, Bigg Jus, and Johnny Voltik.  The liner notes are filled with notes from woods, Bond, and Green, explaining some of the work from behind the scenes on the album.

This is one of the best hip-hop albums of the summer.  Recommended.