P.O.S.: Never Better
Inventive and ambitious hip-hop from P.O.S.on Never Better
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Friday, 24, Apr 2009 08:36
Rhymesayers Entertainment, out April 27th.
In a nutshell.
Restlessly inventive boundary-pushing hip hop
What's it all about?
Third album by Minnesota rapper P.O.S. - his first since 2006 - featuring his uniquely eclectic style of hip hop, heavily influenced by punk but encompassing a wide range of genres from jazz and prog to more old-school rap. Or, as he describes it - "rap to skateboard to".
Who's it by?
P.O.S. began as a punk-rock musician and his moniker has taken on many meanings from "Promise of Skill" to "Piece of S**t". He is part of the nine-piece Doom Collective, several of whom take on performance and production duties here.
As an example...
"It's a goddamn recession/Show a little respect/You Pfizer babies/Look at how they hate/Pilled out/Bounce they liver off they top eight/Who got a fix for the fix/Bush no more." - Let it Rattle
Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys
A million miles away from the casual misogyny, materialism and predictability of much mainstream hip hop and happy there, P.O.S. is unlikely to have any massive chart success but this is an album that deserves a large cult following amongst those who appreciate intelligent adventurous hip hop.
What the others say
"The further you sink into it, the more sense it makes, and you're able to more clearly pick out the themes." - Pitchfork
So is it any good?
There is a lot going on here.
Firstly, the words. Within the first minute alone P.O.S. manages to nail his dismissive vision of modern America, cramming in references to self-medication, the Bush legacy, the recession and finally Obama-fuelled hysteria: "You think a president could represent you?"
Popular music, and hip hop in particular, can rarely bear the weight of being called poetic but P.O.S. uses words like "gingivitis" and "cauterised" and uses them correctly. He will also casually drop in lines like "Pacified pacifist seldom" or "Peasant like a peacock", without sounding ridiculous - largely because he is a near flawless rapper.
He is also a storyteller. Been Afraid is truly incredible: an intimate exploration of the after-effects of child abuse that is never once insensitive, sensational or pat. The bonus track is also well worth hanging around for: a bitter revenge fantasy built around one fantastic metaphor of being a "hand-made handgun" with "bullets of blank pages/Torn from your little black book".
Musically the album is like nothing else in hip-hop. With references to Fugazi and the Stooges, Never Better wears its punk roots proudly but is never simplistic. The sudden thrilling surge in Purexed is built on organ and industrial-sized beats while Grave Shovel Let's Go features a treated drum break that might make Trent Reznor smile and, amazingly, a violin breakdown. Elsewhere the album's musical palette encompasses old-school scratching, full-throated female soul choruses, jazz drumming, Muse-like prog and even a track built on pots-and-pans percussion and handclaps.
Only briefly does this eclecticism undo itself with a couple of shouty punk-metal refrains that skate dangerously close to rap-metal monstrosities like Linkin Park.
But it seems churlish to criticise such ambition. "We do our own damn thing," to quote P.O.S. on Purexed. Mostly that "thing" is to make the impossibly cool sound effortless.
8/10
Steve Braund