Weekly Release Spotlight: Shape of Broad Minds

Posted on 9/05/2007

Shape of Broad Minds

Craft of the Lost Art

[Lex]

Sometimes genres just need a good sucker punch to the gut. Now the sucker punch has two elements that need to be considered in order to ensure the sucker in question gets punched successfully: 1) it's gotta come completely and uncompromisingly out of left-field and 2) it's gotta be with all the might you can muster up. Otherwise it's just a plain ol' punch. Don't get me wrong--satisfactory punches to a genre's gut are more notable than simply saying to the genre, "Hey, what's up? I could punch you right now, but I'm choosing not to because I'm comfortable with you, your traditions, and your limitations." In the world of indie hip-hop, 90% of the output of Rhymesayers, Stones Throw, and Anticon. range from soft punches to quick jabs, but hardly ever does a hip-hop record sucker punch its genre with equal amounts loyalty and rebellion as the disc Craft of the Lost Art by Shape of Broad Minds.

Unlike the craziest cLOUDDEAD record you've ever heard or the tamest Atmosphere record your little sister's ever heard, SOBM's mastermind producer/emcee Jneiro Jarel wants to be your friend and your challenger. Likewise, he also wants to mess with your head and possibly/probably create a fake supergroup as the identity of this project to make SOBM seem grandiose and intimidating, when really it's possibly/probably just a playful nod to the self-important silliness attached to the very idea of "the supergroup." Nevertheless, if we were to play along, SOBM consists of 5 person(a)s. First is Jarel himself, responsible for 2005's completely solo effort Three-Piece Puzzle. Next, there are several sources indicating that Dr. Who Dat?, SOBM's producer/beatmaster who put out the chill downtempo 2006 release Beat Journey, is Jarel's introverted and instrumental alter-ego. Okay, one mystery solved. Then there's the two elusive emcees Jawwad and Roque Wun, of whom there can be found no other information about on the Internet besides in SOBM press releases stating one's from Houston, the other from NYC--two of Jarel's former hometowns (his mother was a constantly traveling army woman). Curious...but then we finally come to the group's fifth member, Panama Black, a real life Atlantan rapper who has his own web page and several other sources verifying his existence. Sweet relief.

After this business of identity politics comes the party that is Craft of the Lost Art on your headphones, in your car, or on your stereo. And it is indeed a party. A lot of forward-thinking hip-hop can be fascinating and even downright incendiary, but rarely does it translate to "having a good time." Jarel and his "crew" dismiss the notion that you have to pick one path with a sound that at the same time suggests a flowery summer get-down record and winterized futuristic shakedown record. The beats range from the expected (one song title literally includes the parenthetical phrase "Thelonius Dedication") to a WTF factor usually only found on a trip-gone-awry Quasimoto record ("So Much (Chaos)").

These two styles existing on one record isn't even what's notable about SOBM--it's the fact that for once in history, these two styles flow into each other effortlessly, as if someone actually took the time to be eclectic and unifying at the same time (unfortunately a novel concept in ambitious hip-hop records in this day and age), caring about the format of the music album.

Not only do the styles flow and vary, but so does the tempo and energy. This allows for album standout "Opr8r" to swoon you shortly after innovative tracks like "Light Years Away" and "Let's Go," where Jarel gets the always-solid help of MF Doom. While he's kind of a hip-hop whore nowadays, he's at the top of his game here, saying, "I'm glad more people are catching on to this--rap can be fun, intelligent, and progressive. About time, suckers!"

Stream: Shape of Broad Minds - Let's Go (Feat. MF Doom)