producers: serge boogie, squibcakes

Of course it's crap, being surprised that a no name label, no name artist can put out such a fresh record. That's bullshit. However, getting a record like that, you always get a questionmark taste, as you are so brainwashed by the mainstream, that you think a dope album needs flashy cover work, big promotion, and what not. Screw that. Serge Boogie is fresh. Period. It's just a refreshment offering by a guy that approaches his hip hop with a carelessness that only a cat can have, that is not afraid that his art might not sell, and he can't put down the first payment for his Lex or Rolex. As the bio puts it so correctly: this is not the same old beat & rhyme, assembly line, tailored for the deaf, dumb and blind, type of sound.

And so Serge starts up with "That Neverending Beginning". This rather bare Squibcakes production is having us witness the manifestation, the spreading of Serge's wings, as he raps rapidly about coming abouts. Well, maybe Serge's main problem to appeal is, that you need a fast brain to be able to catch up with the speed of his rhyming. Same goes for "Salvina Molesta". You wonder when this kid breathes, and you wonder when he gives us a minute to breathe. The Squibcakes again base a track around a bass and a drum, only adding some sonic sounds during the chorus.

Track no. 3 then gives us "Secret Agents". A cinematic bubbling groove is having Serge go into some tell tale rhymes, sneaking through every security net and trap like Mossad, the CIA and MI6 is paying his salary. This rather short track, with a multi creative production is taking us to "St. Ides Satire", that consists of another ill Squibcakes production, that's saturated by little surprising sound effects. Serge in the mean time shows great story telling skills, that make this a complete song. On "Pagin' J.B." Serge finally slows down his words, and the track even has a chorus. He is still on the story telling, sharing drug tales with us, that don't have anything to do with cargo ships and Italian suits, but just with the way one starts to puff and how one makes sure that he has something to puff in the morning too.

Part two of this belongs to the "Eye Contact" EP. This time around Serge does his own beats, along with still ripping the mic on some 'grab it and run' type vibe. Seemingly having found pleasure in hooks, "The Soak" is again using this tool. Criticizing established enjoyments, this is moving beyond what he has done on the other tracks. Funnily enough "Gimpology 101" starts with a German voice sample, of some guy announcing that the ride at a fair is taking off again, or as he puts it 'ab geht's'. Serge uses the track to make fun of the corrupted aspects of this music genre. But he does not do it in a frustrated way, or in a 'why do they get what they get, and I don't' kind of way, but just in a humorous exposition, that's very nicely executed.

"Hollywood" is driven by a funky guitar, that provides the platform for Eraq's scratching, but mostly another tale of a lost soul at a party, that Serge discovers and exposes. He then goes for the straight spitting on "Lawnmower Man", hitting us with clever punchlines, battling us. But we can't even respond as we are too interested in hearing what he's going to say next. Opening "Dog Days" with the line "I'm one French fries short of a happy meal", he takes us to his darker side, with an early 90s beat and some melancholy, lost love rhymes, that still can't prevent us from checking if there isn't one huge tongue in cheek somewhere. What then finally takes us to another Squibcakes track called "Sensory Overload". More straight spitting, consisting of dissing punchlines, over an interesting drum pattern, that switches at times, to get some corny 80s synth bass effects out, that are treated with so much freshness, it actually sounds dope. The beat doesn't hesitate to switch things over though, shake the ingredients that 007 stares in despair, and the only let down has to be that Serge's voice is buried too deep in the track.

While it often sounds like he does, Serge is rarely just spitting, but most of the time, there's something hidden between the infamous lines. Combined with getting your neck to nod beats, this double EP (the first 5 tracks being "Amotivation" and track 6 - 10 making up the already in '98 released "Eye Contact" EP, with track 11 being a bonus cut) is some fresh material, that had The Blackspot check it for the Vibe back in the day, and now catch it to have it fill the black spots on your hip hop map.