Review: Soulcrate Music – The Heartland Panic

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The Heartland Panic

Soulcrate Music

/ 20.00 [?]

Published by Dominick on March 4, 2010 at 4:22 am

Often when I think about South Dakota, a state I spent a good amount of time in trying to take advantage of a Football scholarship, the last thing I think about is Hip-Hop…or anything even remotely urban for that matter. Even though the college I was attending, a school that shall remain nameless, had an abnormal amount of minorities (like myself) attending it, I still couldn’t ever begin to relate Hip-Hop, let alone good Hip-Hop with the area….After hearing Souix Falls Indie trio Soulcrate Music that has undoubtedly changed.

Dubbing themselves apart of the “mid west”, DJ Absolute and biological brothers Attention Def and Dirt Dee have crafted a head nodding, interesting and downright solid album that to me is much more in the vein of good ole’ east coast boom bap. Whatever you’d like to label their music, one can’t deny that above all else it’s head turning. How could three white kids from a state that is more known for it’s Indian reservations and rolling buttes come to be so adept at an art form that is so deeply ingrained in black culture and the inner city? That’s a social analyzation that’ll have to wait I suppose, the important thing here is that despite perhaps coming straight up outta nowhere these cats have put together a Hip-Hop album that any street dreamer from The Mount Rushmore State can be exceedingly proud of.

The first thing that jumps out at you on The Heartland Panic is the production…After a gloriously funky intro that could easily double as the background music for one of your favorite blaxploitation flicks we get “Evil In It”; a reflective jaunt that explores the interaction between our emcees and the innate immorality of this world over a bassline that I won’t soon forget. The track sounds natural and is an early example of why Mac Lethal co-signed these brothers and what’s to come. Three decent songs/beats later we get “Drop Sound”, a song that bears a lil’ more sing songyness, but the same dense production, filled with shakers and sinister strings. Production-wise there’s nothing not to like on this album. DJ Absolute keeps the songs steeped in nice arrangements that highlight how sample-based production can be done oh so well throughout an entire LP. If the trio gains nothing from putting out this record, at the very least Absolute will def. be getting a call or two about lacing some beats for people..at least he should anyway.

Another personal favorite was “Old vs. Dumb”. I can’t lie, the horns and resounding kick drum was what gave the track most of it’s replay value, but there was some charm to Def and Dirt Dee’s tale of contrast between older folks and the youth. It’s not a subject that gets covered all that often and really, it’s a pretty relevant one no?

If your looking for the group’s crowning moment as writers skip ahead to “Think About Me”, a memorable track that finds Def and Dirt wearing their more rhythmic, sing-rapping deliveries again over a melancholy ensemble while they get super honest about the human condition of selfish, self absorbed neediness. Over a gliding piano and soulful double-time clap this is just good music that knows no genre and doesn’t need one.

Although the production was extremely on point and most of the songs were very listenable boasting affecting themes, there were moments when Def and Dirt got a lil’ too speedy and wordy at the same time in their flow. At times verses would sort of take on the personality of one long run on sentence fueled by espresso shots and Red Bull. That’ll be an easy fix I think, but truthfully I’d rather see them explore more of the sound/formula that we heard on “Think About Me” rather than speed rhymes. The biggest plus about Def and Dirt as emcees is that they’re themselves on records and don’t have to force anything. Not once did I groan after hearing the typical lyrical mis-steps of Emo Indie rappers or kids from the country who try to kick raps about slingin’ G packs. Nope, none of that here, and they even came correct with their own in house producer/DJ, another thing that frequently is absent with up and coming new groups these days.

All of The work put into The Heartland Panic beams out brightly along with Def, Dirt and Absolute’s future potential. Believe me it takes a whole hell of a lot to make me think back in a fond manner to that lone frigid, unforgiving Winter I spent in South Dakota, but Soulcrate Music has managed to jog some temporary feelings of attachment with their levelheaded and aurally pleasing 12 track debut.

$17.00 out of $20

-Dominick “BIG D O” Ledezma