Shorty Fat Head - Can't Be Without You (prod by Darkcyde)

Hear The Track Here

A new name to me this time from Soundclick and its ever expanding hip hop community. This time in the guise of Hip hop: Positive Vibes and God knows we could all do with some of that. But wait...is that a Parental Advisory splattered all over it? Well no surprise there, the terms hip hop and parental advisory should get a room there are so close these days. Now I don't mind a bit of profanity if it a) spices up an otherwise deadly dull conversation or; b)has a valid point attached to its use. Tell you though, profanity was the furthest thing from my mind once I had heard this a couple of times. What was really at the forefront of my mind was whether Shorty (or Darkcyde for that matter) had sped up the backing vocal on purpose or because it was the only way it would fit the track.

All a bit too much big teeth and bushy tails for me (Ed: He means singing chipmunks)

Except for that glaring addition, much of Can't Be Without You will be familiar, especially if you have even a passing knowledge of the genre. Guy going on about the girl he loves and how she stands by her man kind of thing. As you can see, at this stage of the game I might even be reaching for my own cutting implements except for one thing. It's actually a really decent rap, regardless of words and/or musical tenor albeit in a very lo-fi, low key way. I suspect the addition of the Parental Advisory is because of the sexual content in the track rather than any obvious profanity.

The real stumbling block here is the cheap as chips production, if you know any of Soundclick's rappers you will know that this is a standard and certainly recognisable format. Name any one of the more well know, and I think Shorty could be just as good, but what needs to happen is to up the game musically. Not that there is anything wrong with this track, despite my derision about the chipmunk effect, just that it's nothing like strong enough melodically or lyrically to face up to Shorty's real competition - his own peers. I have had a fair bit of exposure to this competition and almost all have had to take that final step into serious production to really make an impact.

Workmanlike rap track.