Album Review: SoulStice & SBe – Beyond Borders (2009)
Posted on July 4th, 2009 by Patrick Rodgers in Album Reviews, tags: beyond borders, Hip-Hop, SBE, soulstice
Album Review: SoulStice & SBe – Beyond Borders (2009)
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Potholes
As hip hop has evolved, the music has become a lot of things, from the grimiest gangster to the nerdiest hipster. But every now and then in the barrage of sub-genres an album pops up that is just a straight-forward true school hip hop creation, a tasteful balance of clever flows, catchy hooks and sample-driven, soulful boom bap beats.
I’m not trying to say SoulStice and Sbe’s collabo LP Beyond Borders is ‘like totally the greatest album,’ (read the parts in quotations in a whiny, high-pitched voice). What it is though, is a document delivered by some heads who really put in work, studied the recipes and then added their own flavor to it.
“Bird’s Eye View” with Kev Brown is a banger in the Beatnuts’ tradition. “To the Limit” featuring Brainpower is a smooth joint where SoulStice runs a workshop on how to ride a beat by mixing up delivery and word play, hosted by SBe’s hard-nodding set of piano heavy chops. The duo also gives a nice nod to the global hip hop culture on “Chicago to Germany” featuring verses auf Deutsch by Teutonic MC Nico Sauve. Although my German’s a little rusty, it’s nice to folks connecting internationally, and the German hip hop scene has really stepped it’s game up in the past 5-10 years.
If anything, the downfall of this album is that occasionally it falls into the trap of being too safely true school, as critically contradictory as that sounds considering the opening paragraph. But it’s true: Some of the creative decisions seem a little conservative. The production and tempo stay within eyesight of DJ Premier’s turf at all times, and SoulStice’s content and choruses are the confluence between Common and the Hieroglyphics crew (international travel, hunger (both literal and metaphorical), and a fond wink to an ex-girl). Dudes aren’t sharks, and no one’s biting, but occasionally it feels like choices were made based on what hip hop should be, rather than what they want to make it.
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First of all, thanks for taking time to review the album – shouts to Reyn and his crew. It’s probably in bad taste for an artist to comment on a review of their own material, but hey, here we go.
The reviewer seems to have liked the album but has penalized it to a certain extent based on a perception that the work is derivative in some way. That’s where I want to set the record straight. Truth be told, I listen to some “underground” hip hop, but most of the hip hop I listen to would be considered “pop” hip hop. Other than that, I listen to genres other than hip hop. I don’t own a single Heiroglyphics album, nor could I even name the title of one of their songs. I love Primo, but (sadly) I don’t own any Gang Starr albums either. As far as a perceived similarity to Common, the Com I’ve listened to over the years would never have made a song that supports gay marriage (“Strange Kinda Love”), references global warming (“Beyond Borders”), or encourages U.S. patriotism (“No Place Like It”)…that is, for more than just electing our current president
If the reviewer can reference me to another hip hop album that covers the conceptual ground that this one does and cohesively incorporates features from around the world, please do so. Although we’ve no doubt been influenced subconsciously by other art, that doesn’t change the fact that the inspiration for our work here comes from life experience and creative impulse, not the work of others. I’m sticking to my assertion that “Beyond Borders” is a unique and innovative creation that pushes beyond the current state of hip hop.
^^This is exactly why artists should leave the keyboard alone sometimes. It’s no big deal, you don’t have to explain yourself. Your album is what it is, it stands on it’s own. So does every review.