Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

The Hall of Justus is, if I have this right, a production company of rappers and producers from North Carolina that slide in and out of tracks with a dizzying frequency that no one under the age of 25 can properly follow. I'm not even going to pretend to have it down as to who is on what track or who produced what and who without a cheat sheet, and if I have to turn it my Captain Midnight decoder ring, then fine. The problem with this compilation is that which affects much of rap music generally, and which to a great extent has contributed to the recent downturn in sales: lot of this shit all sounds the same.

I totally get that all music of a genre will sound the same if you don't listen to it. Jazz, rock, folk, country, you name it, it all sounds the same if don't listen to it to appreciate the nuances and all sounds different if you do listen to it. Those elements which define a particular genre will also by definition limit it, unless one does something to set their particular joint aside, if not outside of their particular genre. So with rap, there seems to be a punch list that must be completed before a track meets some bona fides. These would include the use of the terms “nigga“ and/or “muthafucka“ within the first 30 seconds; language indicating promiscuity or the objectification of women; and reference to the visitation of violence upon men and women. Fair enough; urban music, whether it be blues or folk music or southern soul has always contained one of these elements or another (check out some of Leadbelly’s songs, or some of the Top 40 hits that came out of New Orleans in the late 1950s or early 1960s. The problem that faces rap in general, and the majority of the tracks on SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE in particular, is that if an artist wants to distinguish his tracks, he needs a hook. Pure and simple. Most of the tracks on SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE don't, or at least don't have hooks that anyone is going to want to listen to more than a time or too. Interestingly enough, the exceptions, on the tracks “Back At It” and “Life At The Party,” feature Little Brother, feature a guy named Little Brother. There’s another joint, a potential single (with appropriate bleeping) entitled “Keep It To The Side” which features Rapper Big Poo and Skydoo, which is great on repeat over the car stereo. Three out of nineteen tracks, however, is not a real good ratio, even in this day of digital downloads. In fact, that is the reason that digital downloading is so popular. I have the feeling that I'll have “Keep It To The Side” running through my head for weeks, but the rest? I doubt it.