Thursday, September 22, 2011

Track Checker: R.E.A.L. the Poet "Goodmorning KY"



--Official Stats--
Artist: R.E.A.L. the Poet
Album: "Love, Hate, Pleasure And Pain" (mixtape)
Track: "Goodmorning KY"
Release Date: May 4, 2010

This is the best thing that I do: find an odd mixtape with almost no spins and then find out that it’s dope. The dope part is the most important part (a lot of mixtapes don’t have that, they are dope free).

So for once I actually know a bit about the artist, which is rare with these deep underground mixtapes. According to his website Cold Weirdness R.E.A.L. the Poet hails from Paris, Kentucky and is part of the Cold Weirdness crew which also includes J-Ideas (producer), KingPen (MC), Aaronn Ralph, and Walter Baynard. Fine, we all have are crews right? Okay, so the crew isn’t as important is the music so let’s get to it. Oh, and one other point, Kentucky is putting out A LOT of mixtapes so…what’s up with that (good point, I guess!)?

Alright, so I’m not going to go into every song, like all mixtapes and all commercial release albums, the tracks are hit or miss (leaning hit in this case). Real smartly pulls some undisputed classic beats like Check the Rhyme from A Tribe Called Quest and Jay-Z’s Million and One Questions and holds his own over them with decent vocal production. He also pulls some beats that I don’t recognize which are also good (possibly home spun beats, if so, da shit is ill). He focuses his topics on the ladies but spreads out a bit to other topics. Real is at his best at the beginning of the album when he is focusing on his unique Kentucky experience, and that’s the hook here for listeners – Keep doing that Real, talk about what makes you unique and especially your background and roots. Throughout the album he keeps it soulful but breaks things up with some quick verses over louder beats. He definitely pulls from the old school and manages to keep vibe similar to Jay-Z’s “In My Lifetime Vol. 1”, which is a good thing, although Real is not nearly as polished (but this is his first mixtape from what I understand). A good listen overall.

To save us all time I’ll just focus on one song for review.

Goodmorning KY” (Track 2)
The beat is appropriately large with a nice drum line built up with some light piano and saxophone. It’s good, that’s it. Real has some things to say about his home state and other things and just does a nice job.

I need to get faded / head on bump like my scalp got braided
Every rapper now got a movement invadin /
before I even blow up, this s--- just got me jaded
Seems like being real is the new fake an’/
A lot of [flossin] goin on / don’t know if I can take it

So support real hip hop especially up-and-comers doing it right. R.E.A.L. and his team have a lot of albums out go check for them.

Love, Hate, Pleasure And Pain Score: 7/10
Goodmorning KY Score: 8/10

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