March 25, 2005

{ Prefuse 73 - Surrounded by Silence }

People say "Hip Hop is dead." It's actually getting old. Really fucking old. There are certain artists out there in every genre, in every field, that push the limits. They are bold and brave enough to take things and bend the "rules" - they actually twist, distort, and throw things in a blender if need be. Scott Heron ( AKA Prefuse 73 ) wrote this . . . " I know this album runs a bit varied, hard to swallow and without knowing what the hell i'm getting at, it's the first record i've done where I had to listen to it and go; "what the fuck?"- you know? This music is for me, for you, for the next person. i'm trying to connect with you as personally as time allows. . ." I'm actually listening to Prefuse 73's latest album Surrounded by silence as I type this up. There is a country guitar of sorts on one of the tracks and I'm like - how the hell? When I was 13, I asked my dad for my very first cassette tape - Public Enemy's "It takes a nation. . ." I have grown up with Hip Hop since and I can honestly tell you Hip Hop is not dead, it's grown and become things that many people would have never imagined. Surrounded by Silence is the best release of 05' thus far and I think will be a significant album in the history of Hip Hop. Scott Heron has assembled the likes of Ghostface Killah, El-p, The Books, Camu, Blonde Redhead ( yes Blonde Redhead ), Aesop Rock, Beans, and several other great artists into a diverse blend - a sonic treat. It's hard to verbalize how great I feel this album is - all I can suggest to all of you is to go sample it on Warp's Bleep site, or buy the damn thing. Contributed by Ness

» Prefuse 73
» Bleep

By Alan Smithee in Music | Comments:

Comments

...been reading about this.
I'm glad to hear the genre-blending mixed-bag approach works- Prefuse 73 has always been mad-talented, but I was a little worried about how this piece would come off. It seems like he's struggled to find a niche, and maybe it's because he just needed to go off and carve his own. I'm really excited to hear this now...

Plus, that album cover is just ridiculously enticing.

Posted by: Adam at March 25, 2005 4:36 PM

Nice call on the Bleep linkage as well! :)

Posted by: Shane at March 26, 2005 4:58 PM