Demension - Got Here

Hear The Track Here

Got Here is a track from Demension's Rap Economics, which is about all I can make out his Soundclick page which - to say the least - is a little difficult to read. He/they are either from Atlanta GA (USA) or Mali in Africa, appear to be two guys (Josh and Samba) who between them make up this Soundclick artist, hip hop being the genre in question. Now before y'all old grannies go off in a panty snap, just remember that there is crap rap, decent rap and incredible rap and not much in between c'ept a sea of clones. Takes some chops to make yourself in any way different in this increasingly crowded musical classification and if Got Here were the only example of what Demension has to offer we probably wouldn't get very far. Compared to some of the HH tracks I have reviewed this year, Got Here is certainly competent enough, musically and lyrically and it works well within it's fairly rigid structure.

What it doesn't do, however, is stick out as something that really grips the listener. Now maybe it's my jaded ears (I do hear a lot of these kind of tracks) or maybe it's the lightness (and sameness) of the musical/lyrical themes that do it, but I guarantee you will have heard something similar - and maybe even better. Don't get me wrong about this, Got Here isn't a bad track by any standards, it's just not very exciting or innovative and it has a massively abrupt cutoff as an ending, all of which doesn't endear it to me personally. Now at this stage of the game, there wouldn't be very much else to say on the subject and I should be wrapping up the review but while I was noodling about on Demension's page I caught a listen to a new track Animal (Locked In A Cage) which I have to admit is much, much more my style. It's a damn sight more on the ball IMO than Got Here and it has a blinding rhythm.

In both these tracks the music and raps are reasonably mixed but I personally feel that sonically a lot could be done to sort out the ocassional clash of music and vocals, and of course a mix that let those beats really breathe. Judged on the basis of these two tracks, for my money Demension has something going for them but they will probably have to tighten up some parts of their act to really start cutting through. Mostly those problems will disappear with a fuller, more realised mix but some arrangement skills wouldn't go amiss either. Essentially, I suspect that this is a fairly new venture (at least on Soundclick) and given what they have presented, they have a fair amount to offer. They will, however, have to up their game considerably if they want to get some serious attention from an increasingly sophisticated audience.