Spyder Baybie Raw Dog & 2% Muck: Grimeworld Review

77/100

It wouldn’t be a stretch to call Syder Baybie Raw Dawg & 2% Muck “party rap,” and I don’t know that the duo would take that in a bad way (which isn’t the case with many rappers). That being said, the 11 tracks on their debut record aren’t the “party rap” you would hear at most clubs, unless they are especially decadent and nihilistic ones. If Grimeworld, the duo’s debut record, were on the spectrum of types of rap music, it would fall on the exact opposite end as some of the current hip hop artists populating the scene. When an album starts out with a George Clinton like stream on conscious ramble that begins with “what up all you cum puppies and turbo sluts,” you know this isn’t the new Chuck D.

The albums contains tracks ranging from the previously heard “52277365” and “S.B.B.B” to “Digital Vagina,” which is the groups ode to the various entertaining ways one can utilize the Internet. Things never get too serious, with barely 30 seconds going by without some reference to drugs or sex. The beats, as the title infers, are of the dark and slinky nature more prevalent in the grime scene across the pond than any recognizable producers in the US. The best song of the bunch might be “Camel,” which combines a pretty simple throwback beat and rhyme sequence and strips away most of the antics to show the bare bones talent of the duo. There will be a wide range of appreciation for the lyrical content of songs like “I’m So Dirty,” but the sparse, tight and minimalistic beats lay a wildly intriguing backdrop that is well worth the price of admission.

There will be big fans and ardent opponents of Syder Baybie Raw Dawg & 2% Muck, each of which will probably have valid points. There are people who will enjoy the in your face production and lyrics, highlighting the free spirit nature that is emanating from the growing advent noise/hip hop scene that they have become intertwined with (especially centering around their label Totally Gross Nation Product and some of the Doomtree crew). Others will find it immature and trite, but the response would surely be that Grimeworld was not made for them.  I don’t think there will be too many people in the middle, as Grimeworld is a bold and definitive take and leaves little room for misinterpretation.

Syder Baybie Raw Dawg & 2% Much-P.A.R.T.Y

-Josh

The group will be celebrating the release of their LP with a gig Saturday night with TGNP bro’s Marijuana Deathsquads and Slapping Purses for what should be a great show at Hells Kitchen in Downtown Minneapolis.

Myspace      Buy the Record fro TGNP