Search - Sole :: Selling Live Water

Are you people kidding us??

Kevin Satterwhite | Houston, TX United States | 10/18/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Reading reviews for "Selling Live Water", my cynical opinion for individuals' lack of critical thinking is constantly being fueled. When people complain about music from Sole, it's usually to convey their opinion that it's too simple (stating he doesn't rhyme his lyrics), or that he is some parading pseudo-intellectual. Both assumptions are ****ing ridiculous. What I feel people are omitting to realize here is that music is the canvass, distress is the expression, and art is the result. He's not trying to be overly intelligent, nor feels the brevity to rhyme every sentence. When you buy a Sole album, what you are getting is basically the journal of a man expressed with a hip hop subtext (hip hop beats, flowing lyrics, etc). It's all opinions here. Sole's may be arrogant and mine may be no more significant than the naysayers--whatever. If you consider yourself too intellectually superior (therefore, hypocritical) to respect this music, you should stick to your MP3 bootleg Noam Chomsky speeches. If you consider this inferior due to lack of rhyming sentences, you should stick to public radio. Another note is that reviewers here assume Sole "can't" rhyme sentences because he ignores the implied notion to, which is incorrect. It's not lack of `ability', it's lack of unnecessary purpose. With that said, time to review the album.



"Selling Live Water" in my opinion is an excellent album. In a simplified analogy, it carries the torch that "Bottle Of Humans" lit. When listening to this album you should expect nothing more than the conveyance of one man's journalistic ramblings over hip hop beats. Starting with "Da Baddest Poet", which has the best beat of the album, and lyrics, as a white male, I can partially relate to. It gets my vote for best of show. "Respect, Pt. 3" is another song with the same formula and result: great beat + great lyrics = great song. "The Priziest Horse" has a great beat and lightening fast flow from Sole along with a looped trumpet that at first deterred me, but I eventually came to bear. "Tokyo" emits an atmospheric sound that is just beautiful, and as usual, Sole is on point. Some other minor notes go to "Selling Live Water" with music that sounds optigan laced; "Sebago" is another song with just an amazing beat; and "Shoot The Messenger" has an even balance of great production and lyrics.



Overall, this is a stellar release. And to end this, rather than tell you what you should think of Sole's lyrics, I'll leave you with a verse from "The Priziest Horse" to demonstrate what you should expect and analyze how you please.



"Shaking the hands that never trembles and always land on my feet.

At this present elevation, I can't see past my feet.

Between God's bald spots where the sky stops I'm one of the Earth's latest gallstones despite all the America going on, it's all Rome.

Go get unstuck, don't lose sleep 'til you cant find solace in the fact that you can barely control yourself.

Let alone we're all tied down; since our wings got clipped, and lately can't sing enough in the party that never ends, 'cause no one knows how to clean up the mess.

What's up with all the gags?

Everyone around me has these holes drilled through 'em and someone on the other side is trying to figure it out.

Dying to be someone, killing to be recognized as something that you're not.

Well since we're all so into introductions, don't forget your names

Since you love yourself so much, keep it away from me.

'Cause I've baked under artificial lights with artificial girls and that sinking feeling there's someone sleeping inside my sleepless body.

Quit playing kid games with your old tongue 'til you can find someone to buy future epiphanies from.

Here's one:

I live in the city and leave everything alone, yesterday it was all TV

After all is said and done, we barely have memories so I write what I feel.

Sue me if it's empty

Imagine that, I'm barely human, I'm barely human.."



-Second verse, "The Priziest Horse"



In clear contrast: this isn't your convential hip hop music, if you even considered hip hop."

Post Hip-Hop

Jason E. Pellinen | Minneapolis, MN | 02/18/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have a feeling that this album might end up on a few critics "Best Of" lists at the end of the year. This is a brilliant album. It's really upsetting to hear the stuff that's passing for hip-hop these days. The emcees all sound the same (why is it en vogue now for emcess to sound like they are constipated? i.e. DMX, JaRule). The beats are stale, boring and anything but original, producers are so caught up in using the newest of technologies that too often the tracks are overproduced. And the absolute worst thing about commercial hip-hop....P. Diddy (VOMIT, VOMIT, VOMIT), the most overrated, unoriginal procucer to have ever existed and also an absolutely horrible emcee.Enter Sole, the "head figure" of the DIY Anticon label. He's just what hip-hop needs. Just like punk helped evolve rock and roll, the hip-hop that Sole and his Anticon co-horts (and others, like Buck 65) are producing is the next step in the evolution of hip-hop. Maybe what these guys produce should be called "post hip-hop".With tracks that deal with the so-called "war on terrorism", Sole's personal inadequacy and his "hip-hop identity crisis" this album is refreshing, intelligent, confrontational, and personal. With the inclusions of procucers such as alias, telephone jim jesus, jell and odd nosdam this album is also very well produced. The writting is amazing, even his incoroporation of text that isn't of his own desgin is great. On the track "Tokyo" he thows in a line from "Watership Down" that's just brilliant.As an emcee Sole is undeniably good. His rhythm is anything but straigthforward and never sounds forced (and thankfully, he doesn't sound anything like Ja Rule or DMX).(the following is from the press release regarding the album)The title "Selling Live Water" was elaboration on a statement made by the late poet "Gregory Corsco" who reffered to himself as "an ugly bag of water". It is a suggestion that humans as "live water" are systematically devalued, that their lives and opinions are, to an extent, bought and paid."

Pretentious B*tches

Matthew Marks | NY, NY | 01/12/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Man, all these cats are reprinting their own bad reviews for each sole album and posting them just to bring down the rating. I'm sure if they had a little talent they'd find something better to do with their time. Look, I love traditional hip hop and I love this innovative stuff. This music is what it is, take it or leave it. The words are very good but very unorthodox. Much of Sole's stuff doesn't even rhyme, or rhymes in unusual places. Sole is doing his own thing and I doubt he cares in the slightest what his critics say."