With phrases like ‘back-to-basics’ and ‘old skool’ being ferried around as quickly as ‘weapons of mass destruction’ it’s a wonder that anyone has been doing anything but in the last 3 years. But let’s end the squibbling right here: the closest these girlz come to ‘old skool’ hip-hop is the downloading they’ve been doing free from WinMX. So yeah, the claims are excessive but then so are the unshakable grooves and tunes these girls are capable of spitting up.
The 32mins long ‘Dying In Stereo’ mini album may promise more than it actually delivers, but if you’re willing to excuse the fact that a grab-bag of cute one-liners does not a radical rapper make – then you may well enjoy this album.
Hailing from the affluent Dutch colonials of Long Island, New York rather than from the rat infested tenements of Brooklyn, it comes as no surprise that Hesta Prynn, DJ Sprout and Guinea Love have grabbed the attention of fellow Long Islanders De La Soul and Public Enemy – sharing as they do that same side-stepping of gangsta-posturing and bearing that same one popular objective: the truly liberating character of imagination. Title track “Dying In Stereo” (featuring the ‘big respect’ of DJ Maurice “MOP” Perry) just about bares device: the loose and live instrumentation, the lazy groove, the single, emphatic hook, the quirky congas, the uncompromising petulance of the rhymes, the inspired use of one solitary ‘sesame street’ sample. It’s all in there. When it’s good it’s very, very good. Hook driven tracks like ‘A Thousand Words’ and ‘Trinity’ will attest to this – and the delightful piano chime that is ‘Vicious Cycle’ only serves to confirm it. But when it’s bad (as is the case with ‘The Last Dollar’) it’s palpably horrid, busting the daftest of pro-feminist rhymes and yet even more mouthy claims to be rad’.
Not half as literate as De La Soul, nor ever coming near to being as politically charged as Public Enemy, Northern State still go some way beyond the unwarranted ‘Beastie Girlz’ slurs and deliver some well timed punches in the ‘choonz’ directions. So if you’re looking to update the ‘Shangri Las’ in your recourd collection – then get a bit of Northern State.
Culpable as well as capable of greatness. That’s about as much as I can say. For every cloud there’s a vinyl lining.