producers: et3, organized noise

If you read Tricia Rose's book "Black Noise", you'll remember a part where she discusses the importance of the posse in video shoots. And that importance is not just valid when the cameras are rolling, but hip hop cats always felt the need to rep for their family, to bring in their friends for guest appearances or jobs. But at the same time it's fair to say, that when the position was given only due to the love, the person filling it out, was too often not the best for the job. Hence you are getting a cousin for a road manager, that couldn't even spell road manager, not to mention that he doesn't have the slightest idea what a road manager is supposed to do. But he's the cousin, or some kindergarten friend, or, you know.... The same also goes for rap cliques: how often did we have to endure some mediocre guest appearance, by some weak artists, that simply was allowed on the record, because he's cool with the main guys, but not because he's tight? Too often.

Now this here is a review of a family effort, the Dungeon Family to be more precise. The way these people hung out in the Dungeon, the studio of the Organized Noize team, means that this just as much was formed as a grouping of talented individuals, as it did form due to them being cool with each other. But just a quick look into the roaster will tell you, that there are enough acclaimed artists on here, amongst them: OutKast, Goodie Mob (Cee-Lo, T-Mo, Khujo, Gipp), Sleepy, Witchdoctor, as well as Big Rube. Hence we can dare to check this out. There are two things you need to know first though: 1) OutKast is known to do things different, meaning flipping the script. 2) The Dungeon Family is outta Atlanta. That's in the South. They actually do make Southern music at times. So don't be surprised by anything that you'll hear on here.

There's a whole bag of pushing forward funk, like on "Presenting Dungeon Family", or even further on "Crooked Booty", that first disguises itself with the Cee-Lo opening. But once the beat comes on, you'll get another one of those Marching Band offerings, that is telling us about the ATL version of a Macarena, the Crooked Booty: "it's not very hard it's kinda easy to do / all you got to be is poor and broke and have no loot". The very cool track "On & On & On" is keeping you dancing, and the simple "6 Minutes (Dungeon Family It's On)" does have the quality too for you to strut along. On here almost all the emcees connect, and it's Big Rube that opens the cut going: "we got 360 degrees of emcees / that make these rap niggas sound like they swanging from trees / everything from brain food, to putting broads on they knees / we do it all for the love and never all for the cheese".

On the more calmer side we get "Follow The Light", that's a track showing you support and telling you to keeping your head up, or "Trans DF Express", where we are hearing some rider sounds (that Cee-Lo describes: "it's so bold you could smell that funk with a cold"), as well as player lyrics. The Society Of Soul is really getting down with the Soul on the slow "Rollin'", and once in touch with the inner spirit, we are going for the gospel on "Excalibur". "What Is Rap" is done by Witchdoctor and Big Rube, who gives us the more thought out arguments, him going: "it's the heart and soul / of the niggas, and these dirty red walls and toes / it's a story of the day we lost all control / not the times we boss balled with hoes / not the rhymes we crossed-jawed with those".

"Emergency" is somewhat hard to describe, it being of a universal style, that can easily be claimed by several parties. Another one of those hard to describe tracks is "They Comin'", which is a Goodie Mob track with T-Mo and Khujo sharing it, and talking about some neighborhood revelations, as well as system declarations. Further there are a couple of flaws on this album too: Freddie Calhoun is enormously not connecting with the beat on "Forever Pimpin' (Never Slippin')". The lyrics and the beat are happening at the same time, but it's like they are in two different rooms. The strings are a very bad pick, as the content of the words needs something trunk rattling. The Organized Noize beat for "White Gutz" featuring Bubba Sparxxx is also giving us a hard time to get too hyped about. And while okay, "Curtains (DF 2nd Generation)", where Chamdon, Blvd. International, Slimm Calhoun, Killer Mike, C-Bone, Nathaniel and Brother James get the chance to shine, it's not blowing us away either.

Not even all OutKast fans will like this record, as the two actually allowed the other cats to have a lot of influence on this album, what prevents it from being quite the revelation that we learned to expect from the ATL twosome. But at the same time, due to Big Boi and Dre stepping back, this paved the way for the album to find its own character, and that's news for those that are willing to troop into deep and differently skank funk.