ALL NATURAL - Elements (Fire) - 2008 - Album review

ALL NATURAL – Elements (Fire) – 2008 – Album review
HIGHLIGHTS: The All – Backslap – Poppers Pop, Breakers Break
SOUNDBITE: “Let the poppers pop and the breakers break/ I’ll slay y’all suckers from state to state”
RATING: 3.5/5
All Natural’s last LP Vintage was rarer than rocking horse shit on these shores so it passed the Monkey by - but the fact that their second LP, 2001’s Second Nature is a Monkeyboxing all time favourite should give a you a sense of how anticipated this release has been. Apparently All Natural (i.e. Chicago’s MC Capital D and DJ Tone B Nimble) have conceived the concept of releasing one album for each of the four natural elements earth, air, fire and water with a different feel to each. So that’s their career plan sorted for the next few years. But what does this decision by the underground Chi-town legends actually mean for us? Well it means Elements: Fire is a bit – er - fiery. Sounds-wise it picks up where some of the more brooding tracks like Second Nature track Vegetarian left off which basically means a lot of crisp old school beats, matched with minimal and frequently doomladen organ and synth cuts leavened with the occasional jazz flourish and some old school scratching from Tone B Nimble while Capital D seesaws between ominous battle rhymes and social observation. Sure, the sound is boom-bap but there’s nothing dated about the super clean efforts from a range of producers like Kev Brown (De La Soul), Cap D himself, to newcomers Proh Mic, Kalico, Gee Field, and Battletek. Promising opener The All is a battle rhyme (“hardest working artist/ and I shit on a charlatan”) that brings some heavy gothic organ sounds and the next few tracks also keep the battling up. Backslap is particularly worthy of note and perhaps the album’s standout. Capital D’s trademark is flows dripping with alliteration and assonance and on this track he excels “Here’s to the astute young scholar/ Disciple of Bambataa/ No man can slay ‘em harder/… PE, Right starter/ Cap D Chi rockin shit/ Proper big bopper non-stopping the flow“ and you wonder how the man manages to enunciate like machine gun and still sound like he’s had a hit from the bong. Something of Nothin addresses racism and features new school metal guitar chops and plinky synths while Poppers Pop, Breakers Break is back to the battling over little more than a rolling break and some spooky wailing that I have heard used before somewhere (possibly on Gravediggaz’ Niggamortis if I remember correctly). Nothin to Lose features a pair of loops (one Arabic sounding, the other a fuzzed out jazz loop), Tone B Nimble scratching for his supper and Cap D exploring the social ills and miseries of contemporary America. The final third of the LP tends to be more chilled and have less character than what has come before though. Final track Stronger Than Love shows that All Nat still like to try out new shit – though this hyper smooth riff on hustling is frankly quite horrible and a lame closer. If you’re into Souls of Mischief/ Hiero or you like those hip-hop tracks that Aim likes to put out when he’s in the mood you should definitely give this a whirl - it ain't quite the bomb but it's runnin' all the same.
Out now on All Natural Inc.
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