This Is Book’s Music

Good vibe hip-hop is not dead, and just because it’s “good” doesn’t mean it’s boring. Hoodie Allen’s Making Waves is a mixtape showing their ways of dropping good raps with a fun vibe, imagine the power of Kanye West without the sarcasm and mix it up wit Gym Class Heroes and maybe a bit of Lyrics Born, and I mention them because they’re down with getting their raps and rhymes down, but don’t mind mixing it up with a bit of soul flavor. For them, it doesn’t sound like a means to cash in with everyone else, it sounds natural, as it does in “Chasing The Dream”. They may be nothing more than two white guys who may be working at Dunkin Donuts, but they be funkin’ fo nuts, you know what I mean? Um, DO YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN, FAKA

“Turn The City” sounds perfect in 2009 as it would have in 1982, as if The Buggles hooked up with Depeche Mode while checking out a Phonte Coleman or Slug show. While their new updated take of The Pharcyde’s “Passin’ Me By” may get them added attention and perhaps some airplay, as good and respectable as it is, their original material is far better. They rap, they sing, they write, and they do all of these things as artists who are very secure of their talents and capabilities.

Making Waves (FREE MP3 DOWNLOAD, 94.43)