Search - AWOL One :: Four Eyed Mortalz

A must for Awol One fans, but not for all hiphop collections

maxheaddrone | Charlotte, N.C. United States | 08/01/2002

(3 out of 5 stars)

"If you've heard the Shapeshifters and know what they're about, you'll probably dig this album. It is material recorded in the same time range as 'Know Future'. Let's get to it...
First things first(to be helpful), there are many guests on this album who are given no credit here so I can list a few:
-D.J. ESP is only on three or four tracks, but they are some of the strongest-'Permanent Paradise' being the one song recorded in an almost-studio-quality.
-'The Real Underground', a song featuring Massive, is based over a Nirvana guitar riff(Come As You Are).
-'Gullpowa' is a hillarious rant on the modern day Pamela Lee/Britney Spears mentality (silicone/salon/sunscreen/ starvation/etc.)With 2Mex and Circus and a few other of Shifter Crew. "trying their best to defy gravity/by enlarging their chest cavity"
-Radioinactive is on two tracks. The Camera Shy remixx he's on is just a triumphant trumpet cadence with Radio and Awol rhymin on tempo to no beat(very abstract). And on 'Insanity Is A Good Looking Creature' Awol makes himself laugh talking so much smack, then Radio comes in sounding like he's transmitting over a Walkie Talkie talking about sending satellite transmissions....
-'Hometown Heros' Is a 10 min. long collage of insturmentals, prank phone calls, and a Circus rhyme at the start and a 2Mex rhyme at the end, Produced by Transducer, Awol and Radio
-The song 'Weeds are Bloomin' is also a fairly high quality recording featuring Tommy V. with a smooth beat by DJ Pres. It's a nice, laidback classic Awol track-"The weeds are bloomin'/on the planet of the hardened humans" For those of you who've heard Awol, you can imagine him chanting that.
-And finally, a lo-fi, mics way too loud, basement freestyle session on the radio featuring Abstract Rude alongside Awol. Both kick good rhymes, but the sound quality is LOOOOWW. That's what makes it the underground,its dirty.
In fact, too dirty for some. But for anyone who has ever recorded a song on a 4-track or listened to a tape of your freinds jamming recorded live onto an old boom box-Thats what this collection is, not throw away tracks-just overlooked gems that, in all their strangeness, are still more inventive than any of the dribble that gits tha airplay 2day!!"