producer: suspended animators

You know, persistence can be a strange beast. Especially in this hip-hop game. The old adage of "if you keep at it, it'll eventually pay off" is all too often just that, an old adage, with exceptions running rampant throughout the independent hip-hop landscape. Enter the White Collar Criminals. Who the fuck is the WCC you ask? WCC is composed of Sankofa (Michael Milken), J?D of Double Helix (Barry Mankow), and Robin (Jim Baker) and George (Charles Keating Jr.) of the Suspended Animators. Fresh off the heels of the Sankofa and Suspended Animators collaboration SA-2, WCC picks up where SA-2 left off, but expounds upon every aspect, giving "Invest-Mentality" a thoroughness or completeness only hinted at on SA-2. While this album might be the first taste some heads get of the aforementioned players, this collective has already released several underground releases and one professionally released independent project (Double Helix's "DNA-alysis").

Now on to the music. Before I even get to the vocal half of the WCC, let me just say that the Suspended Animators are some talented motherfuckers. The sonic landscapes they weave for Michael Milken and Barry Mankow to spit upon is intricate, detailed, and definitely raw (it's gotta be the dirty drums). If you're a DJ Shadow or Krush fan, then the Suspended Animators are definitely here to give you your daily helping of funk. Jjust take a listen to "Worse than Death (3rd Movement)" or "Time is Money" for a fixing. Now those are some pretty hefty names to be associated with, but after one listen to "Invest-Mentality", I dare one to question whether Charles Keating Jr. and Jim Baker belong in such distinguished company. And after listening, you happen to disagree, complain to someone else, because I don't give a fuck.

Now on to the soldiers who weave the swords of vernacular for the WCC. If you're at least somewhat familiar with the underground internet hip-hop scene, it'd be hard to not have heard of Sankofa. His breath control, husky vocal presence, and testament-like scribed lyrics are as easily distinguishable as polka dots were on Kwame. While Sankofa continuously brings it like only he can, with skilled, precise lyrics and delivery, it's the addition of J?D that makes the WCC more of a battleship than a fine tuned attack cruiser. J?D's singy-songy type delivery continuously plays the perfect companion piece to Sankofa's unrelenting barrage of vocabulary. Creatively or skills wise, it's hard to question the foundation these two stand on when it comes to slinging the verbage.

Fine hip-hop music doesn't come often these days, so when it hits, jump on it. While nobody can front on the skills or creativity of the emcees, some might not find the deliveries as attractive (I know some out there will lump them into the "avant-garde" category). And while I think it would be their loss, to each their own. What will not get fronted on though, will be the beatsmithing by the Suspended Animators, for these are some cats who got what it takes when it comes to the music. Props to WCC for creating good music.