Oddisee

Oddisee, out of Washington, DC, just made his way to my ear holes.

This might mean I'm less up to speed than I fancy myself.

This might just mean that I'm on the right path.

This might mean that I'm old and fuck and just spent the last half hour unclogging a vacuum cleaner of a stray shoelace. FUCK ME FOR TRYING TO CLEAN HOUSE, RIGHT?

Oddisee's The Good Fight first slaps you up side the head with that jazz tip. I don't know if you've ever been slapped upside the head with a jazz tip. But it feels great. When you're in the mood to be slapped upside the head with a jazz tip. Otherwise, ew!

The first track, "That's Love," is like a conversation, with raps like horn riffs, switching between choppy and a conversational flow. Oddisee strikes me as a dude who didn't bump much gangster rap. Repping for the Low Budget Crew and the Diamond District Group, Oddisee speaks more on everyday shit: "I think I want a job in a office" - from "Contradiction's Maze".

But he follows up these banal statements with riffs of rewind-worthy raps: "I could be the epitome of what a boss is / A paycheck every two weeks, no illusion that I don't sleep for the fear that I go starving / And yet I want to take more risk, I don't want to take more losses / Want to be a better spitter but I like the idea and I don't care what the cost is / I want to tell the truth even when it hurts but when it comes to me I'd rather have the blow softened / Want to pray five times a day in my head and to the mosque but it's probably that I don't go often." I KNOW that I transcribed that incorrectly, but you get the idea. No AA BB rhymes here. With Oddisee it's a constant helping of observant and impeccable bars.

It's not all spitter shit either. I heard lines in Arabic (I think). And if you that dude trying to hire some chick to come wail/moan over your hooks, just please stop and listen to how Oddisee does it properly on, "Book Covers" or "What They'll Say".

With all production credit his own, Oddisee is outdoing himself. And it's not like he's working around his limitations. He's got production credits for Open Mike Eagle and shit. Dude is overflowing like a bacchanalic chalice of jazz samples and percussion kits. It's enviable and astounding. It's like when my son tries to play me at Mario Cart. Little dude feels the weight of two decades of practice and gets smoked. Homie don't play that! In this situation, Oddisee is the pops, and we're all just being embarrassed. The bowel movement-inducing bumps on the 52 second long "Flight Delays" proves that Oddisee could if he wanted to, but aspires to sooooo so much more.

On a side note: Oddisee's The Good Fight is out on Mello Music Group. Mello Music is not-so-quietly becoming a go-to destination for forward-thinking rap talent and amazing music in general. I regularly check them out and try to keep up to speed with their new releases. (Reminder to self: Peep that new Red Pill when you get a second.) If someone at Mello reads this, just fucking add me to the press list already and I'll go at these new releases like newly-divorced dad on an all-expenses paid vacation to Hedonism.

Did I just give too much away there?

Oddisee is no rookie. He has several releases under his belt, and if anything, The Good Fight, is going to make me revisit everything he's ever recorded. It's that good of a record. I don't want to pigeonhole it as soulful, or genre-bending, or google some obsuce jazzman and pretend that a comparison to him is somehow unique and makes everybody seem cool. I just want you guys to know that this is THAT SHIT!

Press play and drive home from work. Press play and chop vegetables. Press play and play with your kids in the living room. Press play and chief with the homies. Press play and do your homework. Press play and write strongly-worded letters. Press play and dance with yourself sensually. Whatever the fuck it is that you do, press play and fucking do it.