The Grouchy Gaijin's Thoughts on Music and Such

Philadelphia Slick is a 10-piece group from, guess where: Philadelphia. Normally I don't go for too much rap but these guys really seem to know what they're doing. What I like about these guys is that they're a live band. The music isn't just recycled beats from old soul records or 80's hits like so much of today's music. These guys have strings and horns on stage, something that gives a bit more cred to what they're doing, than the standard hip-hop outfit.  Add to that the fact that the front-man Noesis has some good rhymes that are original and at times even clever and you have a recipe for success.

The history of live music in hip-hop recordings isn't really new, but it's not something that has been very well explored either. The Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E, a group of Samoan brothers used this concept many years ago and had some success. L.L. Cool J in his MTV unplugged performance took it to a new level. The Roots made live instruments relevant for a new hip-hop generation and Philadelphia Slick is doing its best to move the idea into the future. I'm not sure if these guys will offer any competition to The Roots, but it's good to see the idea catching on.

Philadelphia Slick takes elements of the best soul and jazz that Philly has to offer and mixes them with some hip-hop and spits out a brand new animal. The sound might be a little raw for listeners of other kinds of hip-hop groups. The live instruments sound different than the over-produced slickness coming out of the rap world today. These guys aren't Kanye West, and that's a good thing.

The record Oil has 15 tracks of pretty decent music. The strings and horns work well with the live drums and the synths present in the recording. The vocalists definitely have talent and the whole group shows that they have spent some time figuring out how to make the idea work. I suspect that the live show would probably be better than the recording.

Overall, I think these guys are good. I really like the live instrumentation and Noesis' rhymes are a definite plus. I give them 3 and one half out of 5 scowls on the Grouch scale. Cross your fingers and hope that these guys, and groups like them, are the future of rap.

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