MUSIC REVIEWS
Rhymefest - Blue Collar
David Allun Jones
For a man who defeated Eminem in a freestyle competition and scored a Grammy for his co-writing credits on Kanye West’s “Jesus Walks” all before releasing an official debut, things seemed to have been prepped real nicely for Blue Collar, the jump-off of 29 year old Chicago native Che Smith, aka Rhymefest. Blessed with daft wit and a tender optimism, the emcee further directs rap’s focus on the materialistic and hood-oriented for something a lot more people can relate to: less violent day-to-day struggles (like trying to pay the bills on a minimum wage job) and a socially conscious concentration, while continually referring to ones dreams to become something bigger.
Such a mature stance is most likely due to Rhymefest’s “elder” age, but no matter the case, it’s an inspiring perspective that keeps Blue Collar heavily entertaining. “More” employs fellow Chicagoan Kanye’s drum-addled gospel-hop creations for a look into the life of a rapper who’s tasted fame through his award winning work with others but hasn’t achieved his own breakthrough success. “Three kids/ See Dad broke-ass waitin’ on the royalties with no cash/ Nice car, no gas/ Stuck at the pump/ Had a lil’ hot single now he’s stuck in a slump”, he recalls with slight fondness, fully aware that his time seems to have truly come. But the album isn’t fully revolved around sappy before-I-was-famous sentiment, justifying Rhymefest’s credentials with strong story telling and bold spitting hipsters could appreciate and even stronger production hip-hop hard knocks would love.
“Dynomite” explodes out of the gate with a relentless diss performance dripping with stylish intelligence over a gritty boom-bap beat to which he rips into the contemporaries he feel are nowhere near his level. At some point on every hip hop album, a rapper takes the time to slaughter where the genre has gone, but few are as lyrically powerfully as Rhymefest, who’s audacious confidence reaches KRS-One-like force. A sense of humor definitely lightens the mood with a svelte wordplay that’ll bring about a smile whether the topic is serious or not. “Sister” combines an encouraging soul hook and crisp sample of Eddie Kendricks’ timeless slow burner “Intimate Friends” with a loopy, albeit serious story about a drug addicted mother in distress (“I even took your kids when they put you out of the last house/ But I will not baby-sit while you in a crackhouse”) while “Build Me Up” is pure camp, incorporating the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s hilarious karaoke reading of “Build Me Up Buttercup” with an advice column confessional about a girl that’s not within Rhymefest’s reach.
Distractions from strip club snap-rap (“Stick”), cheesy R&B hooks (“All Men Cheat”) and a couple of pointless filler cuts (“Fever”, “All I Do”) blur Blue Collar’s heart a bit, but Rhymefest brings it back home towards the end of the album with a dazzling second half that remind you of his noteworthy skills yet again. Peak points emerge with “Tell A Story” which rocks with bobbing Outkast goofiness and sharp character profiles and “Bullet” which tackles the War In Iraq and AIDS.
Like Kanye, Rhymefest aims to feed the mind with his music while throwing credit to the mic-slingers of the Golden Age, but his attempts are nowhere near as calculated in desperation for a Grammy vote. With trendy tales about the “trap” or millionaire braggadocio nowhere to be found, Blue Collar doesn’t have much to guarantee it a smidge of radio play or platinum success, but there’s enough here to promise that the everyman has it in him to produce a five-mic effort somewhere down the line.
