Main Attrakionz - 808's and Dark Grapes III

Main Attrakionz
808's and Dark Grapes III
2015

It's not often these days you listen to a hip hop album and feel completely surprised and elated. Hip Hop can either take the club banger route or go totally underground lo-fi, Main Attrakionz with their newest release 808's and Dark Grapes III have do neither. Instead they are blazing their own trail (as they always have) using anything and everything the can pull from music to create truly original hip hop. "G.O. Style" is straight out of a trance music playbook but molded into something new and prototypal. Much of the album's beats come from a deconstructed trance background, wherein the emphasis isn't in letting the electronic sounds build and build to a peak, but instead to keep them at a consistent level to be rapped over. However the tones and vibes are the same and it really makes something great to listen to. The idea of the hook is almost completely absent on this record, instead the focus is on great lyrics and interesting beats, novel idea right?

808's and Dark Grapes III has a drifting quality that you don't often find in Hip Hop. Instead of aggression and power this record allows the small spaces to float along and exist along with intense lyrics. "Ain't No Other Way" is a prime example of this it has a completely free structure that sort of drifts into spaces rather than force itself into them. "Cycles" may have the tranceyist beat on the album and could easily be a song all of its own, however layering rap over it just adds another element of greatness. 808's and Dark Grapes III is one of the most interesting albums I have heard in a long time. It takes what Hip Hop currently is and shows the potential of what it could be. It is experimental in the very best way and hopefully other Hip Hop artists will follow suit.

8.8 out of 10