It’s rare to find a pure concept album at any given point in the history of recorded music. As far as hip-hop goes, the only other stand-out example that comes to mind is Prince Paul’s A Prince Among Thieves — an epic, cameo-filled hip-hopera. For Donwill’s ambitiously conceptual solo project, the Tanya Morgan MC chose to mirror the storyline of Stephen Frears’ High Fidelity, a film that Don has claimed holds many parallels to his own personal life.

In order to provide the album with its narrative skeleton, the tracks are peppered with dialogue lifted straight from the film, delivered by Don himself (as Don Cusack). It isn’t long before you begin to get the impression that these allusions to the film would have worked better as a collection of good ol’ fashioned samples rather than mediocre reenactments. That being said, there most likely were clearance (and financial) issues that probably made this move unfeasible. To make things worse, the skits aren’t broken up into separate tracks, but are instead tacked on to the end of songs, making listening to the album in its entirety more than once that much more frustrating.

Aside from minor grievances like these, the concept itself is extremely well executed — with precision and admirable attention to detail. “Laura’s Song” the long-ago leaked, stand-out track from the album kicks it off with a heartfelt plea to a recently lost love – a fitting intro for a project based on a film that tackles this exact theme. This leads into “Top 5 Breakups,” which in turn mirrors the backstory and opening monologue of Rob Gordon (Jon Cusack’s character in the film).

Following up, “Championship Vinyl” is a cut which features the rest of Tanya Morgan, and casts Illyas and Von Pea as Don Cusack’s two slacker friends with elitist tastes in music (played by Jack Black and Todd Louiso in the film). And so the hook goes: “snobby? probably / yo, this rappin ain’t a hobby / you trynna fault me for being picky? nigga, please!” They even go so far as to retell snippets from their respective characters’ arcs in the film within their lyrics. Von Pea raps, “I could burn you a copy, or acetate / nerdy flirt, she laughed and that’s all it takes,” mirroring the nerdy character played by John Louiso, who in the movie bonds with an equally nerdy girl at the record store over some obscure music.

Don’s tribute to his father, who passed away on December 27, 2008, is the standout “December 27”. In the film it’s Laura, John Cusack’s love interest, who loses her father. But even though the difference between Don’s reality and the fictional storyline of the film is somewhat significant, the eerie similarities also can’t be ruled out. It becomes apparent here that perhaps Don’s life is more intertwined with the movie than you might believe, seeing as how his father passed after the concept for the album had already been decided on. The track itself is equal parts beautiful and haunting, and is the one cut on the album produced by Donwill himself, showcasing his budding talents behind the boards.

It would seem as if the Don Cusack theme would cover the entire album, however the conceptual half of it ends with the lighthearted guitar-bounce of “Good,” featuring the flirtatious vocals of Regan Fykes and solid guest verses from Che Grand and Ced Hughes. At the end of the song we hear Don proposing to Laura (as Rob does in the third act of the film) and the story is concluded. This leaves another five tracks which, despite being good, seem tacked on at the end of such a tight and well conceived musical concept. It might be said that –  like Rob Gordon — Donwill is the victim of his own obsession with detail. As I said before, it is rare that you find a concept as well executed as this one. However the fact that it seems so strictly adhered to at first, makes it that much more obvious when it suddenly slackens and falls away.

All criticism aside, Don Cusack in High Fidelity is an hour’s worth of intelligent, soulful hip-hop that plays like a call-back to the golden age. For Tanya Morgan fans, this should come as no surprise. In the final scene of (the film) High Fidelity, Rob Gordon looks at the camera and breaks down the makings of a great compilation tape: “You gotta kick it off with a killer — to grab attention. Then you gotta take it up a notch. But you don’t wanna blow your wad, so then you gotta cool it off. There are a lot of rules.”

It seems like Donwill followed them to a T.

RELATED POSTS:

No related posts.