The Man himself
Lyrics Born - Send Them
Latyrx - Burning Hot In Cali On A Saturday Night (Feat Gift Of Gab)
Lyrics Born - Rise And Shine
One of my favourite MCs of all time is the great Lyrics Born. Though not the most gifted MC of his generation he has always been one of those MCs who make you sit up and listen to what he's talking about. His gravelly voice can fluctuate between Busta Rhymes style hyperflow and a laid back, semi comatose drawl but he's always worth listening to.
He first came to my ears as one half of Latyrx with the equally gifted Lateef on the self titled album Latyrx produced by DJ Shadow. If you haven't got a copy of this album, BUY IT NOW. There's nothing else quite like it on the market.
As part of the Quannum crew with Shadow/Chief Xcel/Gift Of Gab among others, Lyrics Born has been involved in many projects over the years but I thought I'd put up three cuts that show off the versatility of the rapper and how his style has changed since the early nineties.
The first one is taken from the compilation album Solesides Greatest Bumps and shows Lyrics Born ripping the microphone for all he's worth after an extremely funky beat - I defy you not to nod your head to this.
The second track is taken from the album Latyrx and also features Lateef and Gift Of Gab (who I will no doubt cover in a future post). The wailing guitar lick carries the rhythm as the three MCs finish off the album in style.
The third track is taken from Lyrics Born's recent solo album Later That Day and shows the new, laidback side of the MC. Needless to say it remains funky.
Born also produced his debut solo album and credit goes to him for never going down the path of easy commercialism that a hip hop/funk album could easily lead to.
Hopefully this is enough to convince you that this man deserves to be put on a pedestal as an example to all the production line rappers out there of what you should be sounding like.
Rumours still abound that he and Lateef are working on a follow up albumn to Latyrx so fingers crossed for that one.........
2 comments:
Who would you consider the most gifted MC of this generation? I will puke if you say Eminem, Kanye West, Nas...They don't know hip-hop or anything close to it. I get a little sensitive when it comes to Lyrics Born, because he truly is one of the best and he needs to be recognized. Thanks for listening!
I really agree with this post here and also that Lyrics Born is a very talented artist but the last show I saw him in every other line was "buy my cd" , "make sure you buy my cd" , "did ya'll cop my cd yet" I mean over and over and over to the point it became ridiculous! We actually left the show early, went home and turned up some DOSEone and ol school Deep Puddle Dynamics (Anticon crew) I realized that things I liked about LB were a direct link back to everything I liked about DOSEONE.
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