CD Reviews

Review: Dashah | Rap Burglar 2.5

Ill Insanity/Redline

By CHRIS FARAONE | February 24, 2009

3.5 Stars

Dashah is the sort of artist who inspires wack rappers to retire early. He's an honest bragger and a refined beast, and — perhaps most damningly for lames with less insight than Republican orangutans — homeboy is the quintessential clever hoodlum. In this extraordinary 19-cut tracklist, Dashah proves that he deserves the honor bestowed upon him as the in-house MC for Ill Insanity DJs Rob Swift, Precision, and Total Eclipse. A rather obscure no-frills Brooklyn rhymesayer, he flaunts complex verbal techniques that are nonetheless accessible to anyone with ears trained for scratch-and-flow boom-bap. His greatest strength is, however, also his potential flaw: dude's voice and ethics summon Nas nostalgia in nearly every bar and hook. And much like God's Son, though he can floss when necessary, on efforts like "Reflection" and "Coulda Woulda Shoulda" he gets dramatically introspective. This is the type of album that sunglassed hipsters loathe: there's no misguided electronic experimentation, trenchant verses bump throughout, and Dashah rarely mentions wardrobe laurels. And for those reasons, I predict that Rap Burglar 2.5 will, unfortunately but inevitably, be one of the most slept-on hip-hop gems of 2009.

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Suckers | Wild Smile
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Ruste Juxx & Marco Polo | The Exxecution
I feel sorry for the mothers whose fake thug sons were shot and stabbed in the making of this album.
The bulletproof cred of M.O.P.
In their decade and a half as thug-rap ambassadors, Brooklyn's Mash Out Posse have made some moves that lesser outfits might have caught shit for.
Photos: Jay-Z at TD Garden
Photos of Jay-Z's Boston stop on his BP3 tour.
Man at work
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Javelin | No Más
No offense to 2009 or anything, but there’s something really refreshing about a Brooklyn-based, MySpace-made indie band’s releasing an album devoid of blatant art-rock agendas and half-assed attempts at cohesion.
Au Revoir Simone | Still Night, Still Light
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Review: Department of Eagles
At the Brattle Theatre Sunday, Fred Nicolaus, guitarist from the Brooklyn-based duo Department of Eagles, announced that they'd play a song from their little-known 2003 debut album, The Whitey on the Moon UK LP . "It's not very good," he warned.
The making of the Roots-versus-Antibalas Sound Clash
We're not previewing the Red Bull Sound Clash just because the buzz-beverage overlords supply Phoenix headquarters with enough voltage to paralyze a petting zoo.
2009: The year in books
Here, listed alphabetically by author, are 10 of the best books the Phoenix reviewed in 2009.
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