Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

The Grouch is one of the best MC’s that you’ve probably never heard of.  And yet, he’s literally a living legend.  Grouch emerged from the Bay-area underground scene in the early nineties, and has since maintained a steady solo career that also led him to join the now-LA based group The Living Legends.  And just so you know the strength of the following in LA and throughout the west-coast of the Legends and their associates, Grouch arranged Show You The World to be released on the same day as the new Living Legends album The Gathering.  It’s almost comparable to the Kanye-50 showdown of ‘07… almost.

To his credit, Grouch’s album is a full length effort, as opposed to the seven-song EP The Gathering, and he uses the freedom of rolling solo to produce one of the best lyrically sound and melodic albums to come from the westcoast this year.  The strength of the album lies in its ability to be so diverse, which sometimes seems to be what most underground albums struggle with.  Instead, Grouch goes bananas on the album with songs like “The Bay to L.A.”, featuring Murs of the Living Legends, on which he stays strict to his roots and gets hyphy on some crazy, lyrical shit:

When I got back home
Foo’s wasn’t trying to hear
350 for a zone
That’s until they got blown
And they came to my door, like
“Cuz, it’s on!” (bluuud)
Now I’m going back and forth
Greyhound, hella green
In my green Jansport

And if you’re on some other shit and don’t really like the hyphy thing, then you probably should serve yourself a dose of “Artsy”:

You ain’t artsier than me
Cause you chop up breaks
And you dig in the crates…
You aint artsier than me
You pseudo-elitist

Old school sap!

Easily the two best songs on the album, Artsy and The Bay to L.A show just how strong of a rapper The Grouch is, but again, his strength comes in supporting his stronger songs with tracks that are on par.  The formulaic Yardwork, in which Grouch sings the blues about the industry, works because of the superb production and incredible chorus, and while his lyrics drag a bit, he flips the script on Mom & Pop Killer and delivers considerable criticism to the corporations taking over the economy on some of the most creative verses you’ll hear this year. 

His much anticipated title track Show You The World with Raphael Saadiq has him delivering much more than the hyped collaborator, even though the shit he kicks makes the song worthwhile alone.  And fortunately for us, the same cannot be said about God Bless The Elephant (no relation to Fat Joe’s The Elephant in the Room… I hope) in which Abstract Rude and Grouch pass the baton back and forth so effortlessly that if the Olympics end up getting cancelled this year, I won’t mind cause at least we have this track.  So lame, I know.

Regardless though, if the Olympics do get cancelled, and you want something to do while you wait for the torch to ever get to its destination, go cop The Grouch’s Show You The World.  I promise you’ll get more from this album about the world than even seeing all the countries on the planet lined up and ready to compete.  Trust.