CAMP LO - Black Hollywood - 2007 - Album review

CAMP LO – Black Hollywood – 2007 – Album review
HIGHLIGHTS: Posse From the Bronx/ 82 Afros / Soul Fever
SOUNDBITE: “I heard you the man right? You wanted the ‘Lo right?”
RATING: 5/5
Oohh - it’s their ‘difficult third’ album and they’ve been away for 5 years - how have they fared? Well, all things considered, this is arguably the best US hip-hop LP of the year so far and might end up being the best altogether, though having said that, there hasn’t exactly been stiff competition in the preceding 9 months. Lest that sound like I’m damning the efforts of rappers Sonnie Cheeba and Geechie Suede and producer Ski Beatz with faint praise let’s address what this LP has going for it which can be summed up in a word – consistency. And by this I don’t mean to say that it isn’t varied lyrically and production wise, because it is. It’s just that the other big underground hitters this year e.g. Mos Def, Pharoahe Monch and Common have signally failed to maintain standards across the length of a whole album. The movie-poster cover and lyrics reflect an omnipresent blaxploitation influence (admittedly not a new obsession in hip-hop) and Black Hollywood draws from the P-funk of the seventies without sounding like some sort of horrible G-funk. In fact it was Ski Beatz’ production that hit me on the first three tracks which, incidentally, are the best three tracks and one of the strongest openings to a hip-hop LP I’ve heard in a long time. The first two tracks on the album bring to mind the sort of thing heavy synth and guitar funk DJ Mighty Mi was doing on the first High And Mighty LP a little bit. Posse From The Bronx, where Sonnie and Geechie waste no time in letting you know who’s back (“To all the DJs and all the party goers, this is the Lo, you know how we glo'in'”) is all heavy kicks, stuttering claps and some nasty clavinet. Then, when you’re thinking – ‘man, that was good, NERD wish they did stuff like this’, you get feedback, a slow rolling break and the clipped funk-rock guitar stabs of 82 Afros as the ‘in-character’ pimp flows roll thick and fast, “If you hold a gun, you will be the only one/ Rapping on the floor.” It might not be lyrical rocket science but there’s no wack rhymes either and where so much US hip-hop of late has limped by apologetically on foot, this pulls up in a pimped lowrider and steps out in a floor length fur coat – much like Cheeba and Suede seem to want to, judging by the cover. They’re having fun and it’s infectious. Recent single Soul Fever is the one that will get your lady shaking her booty as a catchy loop of a soul singer humming carries the LP’s party tune in tandem with the "We need more divas/ More divas/ More divas" chant of the chorus. Later on Ski dips into some really sparse stuttering minimalist percussion for Pushahoe (which incidentally, a mate of mine reckoned he could duplicate on some saucepans although it made me think more of Timbaland) and, later still, low-fi jazziness on Jack And Jill a more serious narrative where Sonnie and Geechie plumb the uttermost sordid depths of ghetto life. The title track is one of the less invigorating cuts but the LP ends with the 70s orchestral soul sampling Sweet Claudine a paean to someone called Claudine who almost certainly sports a massive afro. What I want to know is why (at just over 35 minutes) did it have to be so damn short?
Out now.
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