Known mostly for being
Brother Ali
's DJ, Minnesota native
BK-One
dug into his crates, stocked with rare vinyls from a three-week tour of Brazil, and came up with a concept for his first album,
Radio do Canibal
. A classically trained musician and capable DJ but low on production experience,
BK
recruited Twin Cities homie and up-and-coming beatmaker
Benzilla
to help piece together a set of tracks strictly from his collection of Brazilian music. From a production standpoint,
borders on flawless;
and
have crafted remarkably inventive but indelibly hip-hop beatscapes from a variety of unusual entry points, interspersing spoken word testimony from a few renowned Brazilian musicians (
Caetano Veloso
,
Hyldon
, and
Ivan Tiririca
of
Banda Uniao Black
) as they reflect on the roots of "black music" in their country. The lyrical side is where the album slouches a bit. For every moment of crate-digging joy, there's a cringeworthy line from one of the
Rhymesayers
camp. Consider this less-than-subtle raunch from
Slug
on the album opener,
"Gititit"
: "Hush buttercup/What's the rush?/Gonna make the gutters flood when I bust this nut." And longtime hip-hop fans will likely take umbrage with
's claim "
and me, the new
EPMD
."
's best moments come when guest rappers from outside of the
circle stop by -- when
Phonte
Little Brother
joins
Ali
the Grouch
over the smoothed-out slap bass loop of
"Here I Am,"
when
Black Thought
goes solo over the haunting reverb guitar lines of
"Philly Boy,"
and when
Murs
lustily muses on the joys and pitfalls of young groupies over an unmistakable
Gal Costa
sample on
"Eighteen to Twenty-One."
also call on the Chicago-based
Hypnotic Brass Ensemble
to do their thing on top of an infectious electro-funk loop on the extraordinary instrumental track,
"Tema do Canibal."
But the record's hands-down highlight is
"True & Living,"
which finds
Raekwon
sounding right at home as he spits slick Big Willy boasts alongside
I Self Divine
over a lively disco-funk MPB arrangement. ~ Matt Rinaldi