Album Review: Blame One – Endurance
Blame One “Still Doin’ Me”
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Blame One ft. Johaz of Deep Rooted, Planet Asia “Left Shattered” [prod. Tranzformer]
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
If you’ve ever read Wooden on Leadership, a motivational book by famed UCLA basketball coach John Wooden, you’ll remember that one of his keys to success was that his players never played to win. Rather, he trained them to play with the goal of playing the right way. And he trusted that doing so would inevitably lead to wins.
You hear the same philosophy in Blame One’s Endurance. Despite a frustrating career that has already seen a number of premature claims of retirement, Blame remains dedicated to what he sees as the right way of making hip-hop: funky breakbeats, soulful loops, sharp lyrics, clever wordplay, complex rhyme schemes, and substance. These old school fundamentals pervade much of his music and Endurance is not an exception. These fundamentals are refined to great quality in songs like the emcee-slaying “Left Shattered,” the socially-conscious “Ride For The Truth,” and “Do Work,” an autobiographical ode to the 9-to-5ers. Blame is at his best when he can mesh all of these elements together seamlessly like on “Still Doin’ Me,” where he jumps from calling out fake emcees to “melting words together like welders” to reiterating his mission to bring solace through his music. It’s an excellent display of finely honed craftsmanship.
And though it is a chaotic time for Blame–he dives head first into a declining music industry after having parted ways with his stable day-job–he keeps faith. He knows his fundamentals are intact. He’s making hip-hop the right way. The rest will follow.
Reading be fun though:
