#BegBorrowSteal- "State of the Art" by Honors English

guest post by Adofo aka Wolf Windblade
For years I've been saying that Hip Hop is old enough for a discourse between artists that should resemble the highly literate music diction of Jazz greats and enthusiasts.
Hip Hop is now officially a Senior and can become an Elder IF we had more artists who, yes, acknowledge it's poverty stricken street origins but also do the math in intellectualizing and analyzing it: not only as a social phenomenon but as a craft... as ART. I think I found a cat who'll frontier that cause explicably, in practice and in form.
This upgraded approach could easily be called HONEST-E...



I didn't know sh*t about Honors English State of the Art. This album caught me off guard.
I peeped his wife hoorahin' over at her facebook page screaming allegiance ( as she should)
so I scoop up a package deal after being awed at the concept of the 'Crazay' video.
Bodhidharma 2012 rap!  Sun got my attention portraying a Da'mo like character teaching spirit, mind, body cultivation principles to Asian and white students in his video.

  So after some mild shipping discrepancies I get a personal call from Needlz ( well established producer)  and recieve a CD, a T-Shirt
and a customized lighter a few days later. I pop in the NICENESS and immediately get bombarded with a hundred drums from hell and horns from Heaven and Earth.
My head is reeling, breaking a new space in my dome to place these fresh sounds and masterfully crafted words delivered.
Track 2 I catch remnants of a Boogie Down Production beat chasing my P free memories.
The clench is on!
You are now feeling vicious with this Picasso/ 
taking portraits with Plato/
writing verses with Van Gogh / 
beatboxin with Beethoven
Beats are playing possum... they lay low/  
I'm angel but they know I came oh like hollows for halo's

This Naga's voice is Almond Milk agave squoze through clenched teeth made of fresh leather steeped in the human experience;
And yeh he writes very proper as if an honor student but slurs such excellent tales from the muscles in his lower jaw, so much, I had to name it Tangible Mandible Rap.
To call this intelligent discourse music would be a disrespect to the legacy of hip's hop 'pre-Ice age' but judging it by new standards its simple:
Honors E is dope, a return to high form and best when he's writing Edgar Allen Poe like tales from the hood.
Husky drums on track 5 'Second Chances' proves Needlz is an official bangmaster carving out a neo-boom bap sonic for hip pod heads.
 The choice of a Sigur Ros sample take me and my eccentric music collection to Iceland in Brooklyn. Magnifique!
Whatever these cats is on IS reminiscent of the music production quality of Kanye and Lupe Fiasco but clearly it's own due to a bunch of musicly technical subtleties that I'm unequipped to explain. Plus I'm a fan. I don't give a f*ck about that anyway.

I can't stop using the adjective Fresh here. Like fresh noodles over pineapple sauce in Indonesia. Fresh like Nia Long stepping out the shower on Saturday morning.
Fresh like baby diapers still in the box in the stockroom at Target!
Honors English State of the Art is just that...HONORABLE.
Long live Hip Hop's ascencion.

~Wolf 4/21/2012

Adofo aka Wolf Windblade is an artist. Check his works @ www.adofoillustrations.bigcartel.com
He also draws comics just like Samax

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