When he’s not covering the wide world of film and hip-hop for media institutions like URB, DJ Kevlar (aka Kevin Polowy) is one of NYC’s rising turntable workers—proving that ‘waxmaster’ might be one of the few recession-proof gigs, even in Burrough that brought us the bear market.
DJ KEVLAR’S TOP 10 ALBUMS OF 2008
10. Rabbi Darkside – Building the Better Bomb and Hired Gun - The People’s Verses (tie)
Full disclosure: These are my dudes… otherwise I might’ve had to rank them higher. Two of 3rd Party’s threesome went solo in ‘08, and the results couldn’t be more official. Rabbi D’s Bomb drops like a ton of bricks, with pensive poetics that range from political to deeply personal, while on Verses, Hired Gun continues to drop knowledge with the ferocity of a young and hungry KRS-One.
9. J-Boogie’s Dubtronic Science - Soul Vibrations
Long a go-to beatminer and remixer, J-Boogie takes his artistry to long-play form and it’s nothing short of spectacular. With a Bay-reppin’ roster of vocal spots including Lyrics Born and Crown City Rockers, this May be the most accurately titled album of ‘08, a can’t-miss showcase of J’s distinctive style of soulful, pulsating beats.
8. The Jazz Liberatorz - Clin d’Oeil
In a time when every emcee and his mama claims to bring it back to the Golden Era, this production trio straight outta Meaux, France, recalls the glory days of Jazzmatazz and Digable Planets (and most recently, The Sound Providers). Their first proper is a revelation. No wonder rhymesayers like Buckshot, J-Live and Sadat X were down for the cause.
7. Sabo & Zeb – Global Warmbeats
Check your hookah at the door. Sol Selectas CEO/Turntable Lab skipper Sabo and string maestro/producer Zeb bring nothing but dancefloor stompers across Warmbeats. ‘World music’ May get a bad rap among heads (Kuti, Shankar, Chao … what?) but these longtime collaborators have never shied away from it, and here craft upbeat bangers from the simplest of samples (Sequence, Musical Youth).
6. The Mighty Underdogs – Droppin’ Science Fiction
After a slightly disappointing, guest-heavy EP, the latest mix-and-match concoction from the Quannum crew (only released on … Def Jux?) finds Gift of Gab and Lateef droppin’ said fiction on pallets by rising star Headnodic (see also Megaphone). There’s noting remotely disappointing about the guest-heavy LP, aside from the fact that it eventually ends.
5. Q-Tip – The Renaissance
Trust me, it’s not just nostalgia. It’s not just the ATCQ disciple in me. It’s not just that this is everything we hoped Amplified would be in 1999. This is The Abstract fully realized, a culmination of Tip’s evolving solo sound, first awkwardly and poppy, now sure-handed and funky. And most of all, this is grown man’s rap.
4. Sweatshop Union – Water Street
The heat recently brought by the Pacific Northwest extends north of the border with this stellar outing from the Vancouver hip-hop collective. There are something like 62 dudes in SU (OK, seven), and somehow they’re lacking a weak link (a couple emcees even bring that soothing raspiness like Lyrics Born and Boots Riley). The single ‘Oh My’ is my pick for track of the year.
3. Atmosphere – When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold
They’ve put out so many records over recent years, it’s easy for non-die-hards (or non-Minnesotans) to lose the excitement of anticipation. But Lemons is the sort of complete triumph that got us into Atmosphere in the first place. Always a master raconteur, Slug busts nothing but storytelling raps across the board, and it’s damn near impossible not to hang on every word.
2. Bronx River Pkwy – San Sebastian 152
What happens when NYC jazz and soul musicians like Leon Michaels and Jeff Silverman jam out with the Candela All Stars in Puerto Rico for eight days? In a word: Fuego. Like El Michel Affair’s 2005 thing of beauty Sounding Out the City, this hybrid of soul and samba, R&B and rumba, is cinematic in scope and euphoric in feel.
1. J-Live – Then What Happened?
The classic example of a god to backpackers, ghost to radio listeners, J-Live will not go away. And it’s a good goddamn thing. Underground hip-hop’s renaissance man (MC, DJ, producer, I think he still runs his own merch table too) delivers his best record yet, a polished, dynamic, exceptional effort. If indie rap has any chance of staying relevant in the zeitgeist, let J-Live be its leader.
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Special Mention: Grand Analog’s Calligraffiti came out in 2007… in Canada. So I’ll play the arrogant American and say since I didn’t discover GA until ‘08 (at a SXSW showcase), this shit didn’t drop till ‘08. This is superfragalistic dubbed-out hip-hop that has crossover appeal without the usual corresponding corn.
Honorable Mentions:
Megaphone – Moe Pope and Headnodic Are Megaphone
Fort Knox Five – Radio Free DC
Erykah Badu – New Amerykah Part 1
Core Rhythm – Ronin
EMC – The Show
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