8 Years Later, Copywrite is Still High Exhaulted

By T.Love

Ordinarily, the eight year anniversary of anything is nothing to get excited about. Most of the time, things have to be a multiple of 5 to have any significance. There are always exceptions to the rule, however, and Copywrite’s The High Exhaulted: 8^th Anniversary edition is a major one.

Copywrite, whose career has almost been on milk carton status, is using the re-release of his classic album to kick start his comeback from rap purgatory. For those in the know who are familiar with his work on the stellar Eastern Conference Records and The Weathermen Conspiracy compilations and outstanding guest spots for the likes of J-Zone and Cage, 2002 was the year we got a whole album’s worth of Copy straight ripping shit. Backpackers everywhere rejoiced.

The MC is a combination of immense punchline and precision technical ability, who doesn’t take any tracks, songs, verses, or even lines for granted. In that regard he is similar to Elzhi of Slum Village and Pharoahe Monch. The majority of High Exhaulted contains a diverse array of beats produced by RJD2 that, while varied, retain his signature sound throughout.

RJD2 lays the cuts on ‘Sintro’ helping to set the tone for the album and Copywrite comes out swinging like Mike Tyson in the 80’s on “Fuck Soundcheck” with a barrage of battle raps tucked in a complex, multisyllabic rhyme scheme.

“I got a raw crew/that’ll battle all of you/with freestyles that result in thousand dollar lawsuits/hard core/so why you spun apart for?/I’ve evolved shit talking to an art form/and you’re banned from the mic/I get more daps in a day you’ll ever see in the span of your life”

When Copywrite isn’t going for the jugular, he injects a fair amount of humor into his verses. There’s no better example of this than on the self-produced “On My Dick”, an ode to molesting women, being broke at the club, and urinating in unsuspecting people’s drinks while they wild out to M.O.P. .Copy spits lines that are both rewind worthy and funny as hell:

“My crew don’t give two fucks on the scene to ball/twenty deep and two bucks between us all/we didn’t come to dance, we came to see a brawl/and while ya’ll fighting I’m taking the keys, chain and all……ho’s glance, no romance, we stick cock in ‘em/slow dance with ho’s just to pickpocket ‘em/ya’ll bought the bar out but can’t be drunk/cause I pissed in your brandy while you were dancing to Ante Up”

On “June” Copywrite finally takes his foot off the gas, as he finds the time to embark on an anxious and vulnerable soliloquy over a six minute masterpiece composed by RJD2. The beat breaks the mode of what the obligatory ‘serious’ song has to sound like. It’s got a lot of interesting sounds from flutes and upright bass to snare drums, high hats, and a guitar

It’s hard to imagine 2002 being the ‘good old days’ for a whole generation. For those fiending to reminisce over when the overall quality was far and away better than the current scene, Copywrite’s The High Exhaulted 8^th Anniversary Edition is a wonderful trip down memory lane.

Recently Planet Ill had a chance to chop it up and pick his brain about the album, his approach to rhyming and the unlikely origins of a certain song.

Planet Ill: Did you really piss in people’s brandy while they were dancing to “Ante Up”?

Copywrite: No, I never did that while “Ante Up” was playing. i think it was “Calm Down”

Planet Ill: Do you really roll to bars twenty deep with two bucks between you all?

Copywrite: Word. Here’s some insight about “On My Dick.” I made it as a joke beat in like 4 minutes from a TV show theme record I cut up. I wasn’t even going to rap on it until Camu Tao kept saying how much he liked it and wanted to rhyme to it, so I knew if he thought it was hit, it really was.

Planet Ill: Do you hate being pigeonholed as a battle rapper or do you feel that skills are seriously lacking in today’s climate and that what you’re doing is a breath of fresh air?

Copywrite: Nah I don’t, because after this next album they’re going to pigeonhole me as the best. And yes, me and Slaughterhouse and a select others are keeping the fine and forgotten art of emceeing alive.

Planet Ill: Are there individuals that you studied and picked up some things from and incorporated into your own style?

Copywrite: No one person I studied. Will Smith, Scarface, early Em and Royce, fat Pharoahe Monch, Common SENSE, and Heiro heavily.

Planet Ill: Will Smith? Really?

Copywrite: I never wanted to be a rapper, I wanted to be a cartoonist. If you saw my drawings you would see visually why I am the way I am. Will Smith was the first I was into hardcore. My mom accidentally got me into rap by copping his CD for me.

Planet Ill: Do you have a favorite song on High Exhaulted?

Copywrite: My fav on High Exhaulted is “Holier Than Thou” because it’s the first solo song I ever wrote and first chorus I ever wrote. I also love” June” because it’s kinda classic and the writing is from the heart.

Planet Ill: Does everything you said in “Seven Light Years” still apply to rappers today? Do you feel that you are that far ahead of everyone else? Is there anything else you would like to say in closing?

Copywrite: Far ahead? Yes. Far ahead of everyone else? I don’t know about that. All I really know is I listen to those old songs from ‘99 and they still sound fresh to a degree. Not everyone’s music has that appeal. Thanks to everyone supporting me and looking out for all these years. I think you guys are groovy. Check out my website, www.copywriteworld.com.

black-thumbs-up out of 5