Carnage is like a favorite IPA, and I’m that guy at the party swearing up and down that this shit’s gonna change your life. Just try it once. If it doesn’t do it for you, fine. Miller Lite and Tyga will always be there for you.
Here’s your taste: last week, the mid-west MC dropped his slightly spooky video for “Different/Dope Mutha…” off his new album “Respect The Name.”
“I don’t always write extraordinary rhymes/Just write ordinary rhymes and recite extraordinary well.” says the guy who just spit ”You merrily dwell on my talents of balanced vocab and delivery/Loads smashed into smithereens/Barely tell.” He’s aware enough to make fun of his modesty in the next line, but I’ll have to get back to you on the specifics of the labyrinthine lyrics. Diving into Carnage’s flow is like staring into a Magic Eye, and it can take a few tries before everything becomes clear.
Okay, that first sip hit your happy place? Perfect. Let’s take a step back an album for sip two…
“Hunger,” off Carnage’s first LP “Worth The Wait,” finds him “Eatin’ up the world/Acre by acre,” with a track that is somehow even denser than the last. He explores his past as a gifted student and the future of his bottomless ambition: “Called sellout, square, proper English talker/But fire burnin’ for higher learnin’ made me a distinguished walker/Overcame critique/And I’ll prevail again/’cause music won’t be the one area I see failure in.”
And finally, to send you out into the night in a boozy, grinning stupor, this is the cypher Carnage put together to promote his release party. No mistake: these dudes are good. Or, they seem like they are until Carnage steps up and claims his crown.
Holy. Shit. Guys, that’s blood.
It’s not just his flow, speed, storytelling abilities, or rhythmic dexterity (even though he plays double dutch with the beat) – it’s the whole package, stuffed in a bullet and fired from a machine gun.
And just like that IPA, a little Carnage goes a long way.
Chris Cullari | Beat-Play Ambassador Los Angeles |@Chris_Cullari | Music Without Labels & Beat-Play, LLC |