It's often bad advice to be a critic and make your own content. Usually because it makes dumb accusations of hypocrisy easier("Oh, you don't like it when he does this. But you did the same thing"). But, that is the case for Daren Jackson(Stage name: Masta Artisan), also known as the Rap Critic, music reviewer for That Guy With the Glasses. He currently has three albums out, and I decided to buy his first album, Polarity Switch, because I liked his videos and wanted to support him. So is he able to be both music maker and music critic? Let us see.
This album is, interestingly a concept album. How? Let me explain as I go over the songs. The first track(titled "Intro") is, like many rap album fillers, incomprehensible noise and random words(Think "The Old Saloon" by the Lonely Island"). Funny enough, you can hear him giving the definition of the word satire in this track, which foreshadows the following songs. The first song is called "Cut Down"
This is a boast song where the rapper is putting down all his haters while exhibiting egotistical tendencies. Unlike most songs of this kind, it has fun creative lyrics that almost defend the arrogance that the song's narrator demonstrate. It has the best chorus of all the songs in the album and easily my favorite.
The next song is "Such a Playa", which tells a story, specifically that of a "Playa" who likes to treat women like dirt and how he became this way through his childhood. A good song with a good message. As lyrically solid as "Cut Down", though sadly not as catchy.
Then there's "Now" a song parodying today's generation and their obsession with always wanting the latest thing. Then comes "Strength in Numbers" a song about the big and often unconditional support you get from being in a large posse. And then the first half of the album ends with "Logos", a song where the narrator shows off all the expensive brand name products(that are comically censored) that he owns.
Then the interlude happens and this is where the concept(and the title of the album) happens. See, All the songs before were each criticisms of every bad part of hip hop culture that Masta Artisan hates(narcissism, misogyny, irresponsibility, mob mentality, and materialism). The next songs in the album turn out to be responses to each of the songs in reverse order(pretty damn clever).
It starts with "Logos II" a song that shows the dark side of brand name product businesses and how most people aren't aware of them. Then comes "Individual" a song about, well...being an individual(duh). Afterwards comes "Working Hard" a song about, well...working hard(he's pretty straightforward).
We get a song called "The Inspiration", which has a heartfelt (personal?) story of how he grew up and how he would like to be in a relationship and family. And finally "Oh Really?" a song that probably represents Masta Artisan the most, and where he slams all rappers who think they're untouchable and make terrible role models.
So my thoughts? I liked this album. Well worth my money. I like his style which is as smart and humorous as his reviews. I will say I have a few problems with it though. I don't think Masta's very good at choruses. The one for "Cut Down" was pretty good, but the rest were pretty poor, especially the one for "Working Hard". Speaking of that song, while I loved the concept of half-satire/half-response, I felt that for some songs he had to "work harder" to find a response to, if you know what I mean. But other than that it's still worth checking out. As for whether he should keep doing this as a critic? Well, yeah, definitely. He clearly has the skills and the know-how to backup is criticisms of other rappers. He's also in the perfect genre for this seeing as rap is known for allowing artists to criticize other rappers.
In conclusion, this album is pretty good. It's on iTunes so check it out if you can. Also check out the Rap Critic on thatguywiththeglasses.com
This album is, interestingly a concept album. How? Let me explain as I go over the songs. The first track(titled "Intro") is, like many rap album fillers, incomprehensible noise and random words(Think "The Old Saloon" by the Lonely Island"). Funny enough, you can hear him giving the definition of the word satire in this track, which foreshadows the following songs. The first song is called "Cut Down"
This is a boast song where the rapper is putting down all his haters while exhibiting egotistical tendencies. Unlike most songs of this kind, it has fun creative lyrics that almost defend the arrogance that the song's narrator demonstrate. It has the best chorus of all the songs in the album and easily my favorite.
The next song is "Such a Playa", which tells a story, specifically that of a "Playa" who likes to treat women like dirt and how he became this way through his childhood. A good song with a good message. As lyrically solid as "Cut Down", though sadly not as catchy.
Then there's "Now" a song parodying today's generation and their obsession with always wanting the latest thing. Then comes "Strength in Numbers" a song about the big and often unconditional support you get from being in a large posse. And then the first half of the album ends with "Logos", a song where the narrator shows off all the expensive brand name products(that are comically censored) that he owns.
Then the interlude happens and this is where the concept(and the title of the album) happens. See, All the songs before were each criticisms of every bad part of hip hop culture that Masta Artisan hates(narcissism, misogyny, irresponsibility, mob mentality, and materialism). The next songs in the album turn out to be responses to each of the songs in reverse order(pretty damn clever).
It starts with "Logos II" a song that shows the dark side of brand name product businesses and how most people aren't aware of them. Then comes "Individual" a song about, well...being an individual(duh). Afterwards comes "Working Hard" a song about, well...working hard(he's pretty straightforward).
We get a song called "The Inspiration", which has a heartfelt (personal?) story of how he grew up and how he would like to be in a relationship and family. And finally "Oh Really?" a song that probably represents Masta Artisan the most, and where he slams all rappers who think they're untouchable and make terrible role models.
So my thoughts? I liked this album. Well worth my money. I like his style which is as smart and humorous as his reviews. I will say I have a few problems with it though. I don't think Masta's very good at choruses. The one for "Cut Down" was pretty good, but the rest were pretty poor, especially the one for "Working Hard". Speaking of that song, while I loved the concept of half-satire/half-response, I felt that for some songs he had to "work harder" to find a response to, if you know what I mean. But other than that it's still worth checking out. As for whether he should keep doing this as a critic? Well, yeah, definitely. He clearly has the skills and the know-how to backup is criticisms of other rappers. He's also in the perfect genre for this seeing as rap is known for allowing artists to criticize other rappers.
In conclusion, this album is pretty good. It's on iTunes so check it out if you can. Also check out the Rap Critic on thatguywiththeglasses.com