Soldiers Die... Politicians Enjoy Themselves
label: decision

producers: hazardos, red baron, kontinuwis, maff wiz, ahmed chornwell.

guests: ms., yaseem sayeef, kenny jewels.
year of release: 2002
 
With one of the most honest, most true, but also most tragic album titles in some time, the Black Senatorz are off to a good start calling their record "Soldiers Die... Politicians Enjoy Themselves". And it's surprising that you can actually sit in an anthropology class with a dick of a professor, who wonders why people fight wars, as there's no one really gaining anything from it, not even the winner (and yes, I sat in one of those classes). But that's pure ignorance. Just watch "Black Hawk Down": The general sits in the base, sweating. The soldiers are in the streets, dying. The politicians are in the Oval Office, cumming. So it's easy to fight a war for the ones that pull the strings. Because at the end of the day, even if they loose, their air conditioning will not be shut off. But we got a little off topic, but if an album title is able to inspire such thoughts, you need to wonder if the music will be able to do the same or something similar.

tracklisting
1. Hot Property
2. Two Gun Mojo
3. DC Double Agent Interlude
4. Low Suspicion
5. Top Of The Pile
6. Yoga Interlude
7. Respirator
8. Blind Eye Interlude

9. Out Of My Skin feat. Ms
10. Comptrollin'
11. All Day feat. Ms.
12. Red Lasers
13. Perpetual Twilight feat. Yaseem Sayeef
14. Word Lords feat. Kenny Jewels.
Thematically this doesn't start with hiding things, but "Hot Property" feat. Hazardos is getting straight to the point, also declaring that the Black Senatorz are leaning towards a socialist philosophy. Their program is militant, in the tradition of a Black Panther pride, what then makes much more educational and political, than entertaining. What however is not a general claim, because the siren sound of "Two Gun Mojo" is making this the alarm it demands to be. The interlude "DC Double Agent Interlude" is giving us a look into the hiding tactics of the conspiracy before "Low Suspicion" includes a keyboardy but nice Maff Wiz beat. The music then gets better, while not more positive on "Top Of The Pile", that's produced by Red Baron. And while this track is obviously badly recorded, and mixed, hence the dope way the drum is hovering above the rest, makes it unfortunate, because a crystal clean version of this would be butters. Lyrically the Senatorz allow themselves the luxury of spending a track on talking about nothing too meaningful. Instead they enjoy themselves giving an elaborate description of their own dopeness, sometimes in a direct sentence, sometimes by just spitting ill lines.
With "Respirator" the tragedy of the unproper equipment is only furthered, as again the beat comes well programmed and with a good and beyond the usual approach (while maybe a little more gaps would have helped). Our restrained excitement with "Out Of My Skin" then can not only be to some extent explained by the recording and mix. Of course that too, as the drum in this case is too loud, and the cool sample's too much in the back. So it's even harder for us to actually imagine how it could sound. Lyrically we have not to stretch our mind too far though, as the words talk about man vs. woman entanglements. Ms fills in the demanded estrogen, with her falling into a spoken break, that has us demand more of her. And more there is on "All Day", while the lackluster if not less "Comptrollin'" comes on first though. But on "All Day" she's not able to again get us fully interested, but the whole track is not able to do that.
The idea of sampling the 'Godfather' theme looks boring on paper. But as Red Baron found one electronically distorted version of the tune, the obvious concept gets the needed pre-preparation to be able to not sound over-expectant, hence resulting in a worthwhile "Red Lasers". Worse though is the beat on "Perpetual Twilight", that features Yaseem Sayeef. Here the jewels are again transferred from the rhyme book into the mic and your speakers and ears. And the extra clouded ones are the instants where the rapper is leaning toward the spitting for spitting's sake half of the spectrum. And then finally, "Word Lords" featuring Kenny Jewels is an accapella cypher, with each cat again spitting his best verses.
So in conclusion: artists like this have a hard place in today's world of music. They face the steep rise of people only wanting to party and feel good, and they voice uncomfortable opinions in a censoring system of political correctness. So they must face opposition from the mindless as well as the elite establishment, that pulls the strings. But there's a another one, a different elite: the one of the thinkers and courageous. The ones that face their burden of being ridiculed, of being punished. But they are willing to risk that, when they provide a small puzzle piece to the final goal of elevation and the furthering of freedom(s). That elite will be the ones that enjoy this record.
review: tadah
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