Rustik - With You

Hear The Track Here

Soundclick continues to be a terrific source of good independent hip hop, and some really original ways of re-interpreting what exactly the genre can consist of. Right up in the leader pack is Rustik who, over the space of a year or so, have given me some very snazzy tracks indeed and - in the process - gained some dubious praise from me. Must Have's and Tracks Of The Year (in my books anyway) are all very well, but I do like a musician who keeps on defying gravity and Rustik stretches that envelope better than most. To be honest, I don't really like him when he is in his more commercial mode (even though it's miles better than the real thing) but when he has his 'lets try this' hat on, I'm all for it.

To tread the experimental path though is to put yourself in the way of people not understanding, and it's a rare artist indeed who can do that and still retain the interest of the average listener. If anyone can do it with hip hop it's going to be Rustik or one of the other notable Soundclicker's who push the genre to its limits and beyond. See, the real problem with this side of the game is that most of the tracks are made in the cheap, which means that production usually takes a back seat. Not, IMO, that it makes much difference if you are into music that pushes boundaries, but some people have a real bad attitude to what they consider 'home produced' music. Personally, I think that's crazy but hey, takes all sorts.

So while With You does sound home produced (ie a certain roughness of sound and delivery) it's content far out-weighs any quibbles I might have about production values. This is often the way with musicians like Rustik, and truth to tell he has in fact been improving with each release - which is generally the way I have found. So those who already know and like this musician/rapper this will fit in nicely with the tracks you already have from him, and even for an old techie like me this is a pretty good track in every way but the production. Small change when you have a good tune happening and With You is all that and more. You should probably enjoy hip hop to really get mileage from it but I have also found it useful to play Rustik tracks a lot longer than most review tracks. The extra plays are often worthwhile.

Highly Recommended indie hip hop.