Raven-K - Verbal Fighter

Hear The Track Here

My how times change. There was a time when musicians would spend years and years making tracks but here on the super highspeed internet it seems to happen in seconds. I've lost count of the amount of tracks I have reviewed that openly boast about how quick they were made and thrown out of the door. Good in some ways, not in others. See, the reason that classic tracks have become classic tracks is that every note and sound was pored over in infinite details. These days you just program an interesting riff, slap a drumtrack to it and then try - in some way - to make it different to the millions of others clamouring for our attention. Nowhere is this more relevant than on the hip hop side of the street. As you can gather, I hear a lot of this stuff and it's still got a long way to go before it can apply for the classic tag..

Damn, lets start off with bunches and bunches of sour grapes aaaaight...

Of course there are classic hip hop tracks but they have become classics because of the time and effort and money that went into making them, same as any other recorded genre. yeah, but it doesn't matter on here does it? After all, this is just a hobby, right?? Is it f***!! If you think that all these musicians are hobbyists, think again. Remember, the tracks you put online are up there forever. I still find stuff I made in the 1990's in some of the weirdest places. While Raven-K (who is a very good rapper indeed) and producer Justin Storie (of Satellite 3) have nothing to feel ashamed about with this track, there are some niggles.

The current hip hop fascination with classical music sounds and styles is a double-edged sword. When it works it's absolutely breathtaking, when it doesn't it just makes you want to cry and not in a good way. A lot of that is down to the choice of phrases and - much more importantly - the sounds used. The trumpet sound in this track, for example, is a great idea musically but let down woefully by the actual sound of the sample. I know MIDI has some great sounds but IMHO you can't beat the sound of a real trumpet and with the wealth of real classical samples (some of which are free) there are around something should fit that bill. Everything else, mind, is very good although IMHO the sound could have been much fatter, especially at the bottom end.

Highly Recommended (for the rapper).