Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

Eh.

Yeah.  “Eh” about sums up this debut of tag team rappers Priviledge and Billy Woods.  Emergency Powers is pretty run of the mill.  Even if they are a little funny, these guys ring in with merely regurgitated flows and recycled subject matter.  They throw in that occasional topic that is of considerable complexity, yet only use it to flesh out their rhymes.  Like, “Stem cell research use amniotic fluid, my boys smoked ‘haze’, dunno how they do it”.  Yeah, it’s just like that.  Just forget this white boy said it.

And most topics revert back to smoking that dank nuggetry.  Whether the Flight Brothers are discussing Iraqi insurgents or Tide bleaching pens, it somehow has something to do with everyone’s favorite herbal remedy.

Production is generally solid, if not vanilla.  I mean, if you are going to be given a template of monotonous beats to make something out of, do it with some originality and not default, stoner irreverence.  That backround looping isn’t going to become any less annoying with crappy delivery.

Super Chron Flight Brothers could do themselves a big favor by capitalizing on the inherent humor of their subject matter and giving it their own personal twist.  I like the fact that these guys describe themselves as “the guys you see in the police sketch… heading north on foot in dark clothing”.  You know they are having a laugh, but meaning it as well.  That works for me.  Enough about foreign policy, and more about “panama red”.  Who needs a “world cultures” lesson gleaned from fleeting looks at the news by a couple guys who don’t really care anyways-that’s why we have a Sean Penn, goddamnit.  You know, at the very least, they honestly care about getting fucked up.  As my high school drama teacher desperately told those kids that shared less mainstream enthusiasm for the craft and more for quirky dissidence:  “Just do that!  That’s brilliant.”

These doobie puffing rappers need a beleaguered coach, or a disillusioned drama teacher, to help them face the facts and concentrate on that one, intentional or otherwise, asset that can offset a collective mediocrity summarized here in Emergency Powers.  Consulting Diddy wouldn’t hurt. 

If some rappers pining over ganja is your thing, by all means, check this out.