BANDCAMP SUGGESTIONS: Ethel Cee/Dumhi’s “Seven Thirty”
If you’ve heard some of Dumhi‘s projects in the last few years, you may have heard of rapper Ethel Cee in a few songs, but now there’s a major push to push her into the forefront. Welcome her.
Seven Thirty is an EP showing how female MC’s should be doing it, but at this point in hip-hop’s recorded history, some might feel it’s difficult to separate the differences between male and females. No reason. Ladies have been tearing it up on the mic for years, but in the last 12 years, it seems if you are a woman, you have to struggle 20 times as hard to be heard, leaving many to fade away. For me, that’s even more of a reason to take a serious listen, as she has the kind of power that made Queen Mother Rage and Isis/Linque once shared with the world. You may hear others, but I could easier hear Ethel Cee do tracks with Amplify Dot, RoxXxan, Eternia, Rakaa, Prie, Wizdom, or Black Thought.
On the musical side, Haj continues to create tracks not only for the singular, but also for a broader scope, and I like that. In other words, while he is producing individual tracks, when you hear it as part of a full project, I sense a bit of continuity, or at least an effort to make a series of songs connect. That may happen by adding sound effects to tie them in together so that it becomes a cinematic feast for the years, and listeners will be able to hear/see/envision the broader picture of what is Seven Thirty.
Even if it was made to be a simple EP of songs, there’s some sense of structure that shows me not only do Ethel Cee and Dumhi know what they’re doing, but they can also play sound games if need be. Participate by listening and have fun.
What do you think?