Album Review: Aceyalone - Leanin On Slick

Album Review: Aceyalone – Leanin On Slick

Posted On: June 9, 2013
Posted By: odeisel
Comments: 0

By Odeisel

Hip-Hop is youth culture and sooner or later as you get older, you get confronted with the decision to continue your immersion in the music, particularly as the mainstream becomes increasingly juvenile. If you stick around and search hard enough you’ll see that there’s enough music out there that you don’t feel overwhelmed by “nigga I fucked yo’ bitch” music. Aceyalone presents one less thing for you to search for. His latest album, Leanin On Slick is nuanced Hip-Hop for an older crowd. If your tastes are more analog than digital, this Bud’s for you.

The album is powered by live instruments and free-flowing melody and groove. There are bongo drums in lieu of 808’s, bass guitars instead of bass and interpolations of older Hip-Hop rhythms that take advantage of their familiarity to settle you into the mood. The feel is closer to Afro Cuban Rock & Roll than Brand New Heavies liquid hippie organic acid grooves.

Aceyalone can rap his ass off, but the beauty of Leanin On Slick is that he doesn’t waste time trying to impress you lyrically or beat you over the head with technical precision. The aim of the album is to show you a good time. The rhyme schemes are open-ended; alternating from jazzy, spoken-word deliveries a la the title track, mono-rhythmic improve stanzas (Pass The Hint). The old school call and response feel of Show Me Them Shoes provides cover for sublime lyricism that is so often disregarded in the present marketplace.

Cee-lo would hear Working Man’s Blues and be jealous he didn’t do it…no wait he’s on the hook! It’s that kind of infectious horn blaring, could have been on the Lawrence Welk show 40 years ago feel that would have Mr. Green rocking some kind of feather-adorned outfit and getting busy. The smoky, sexy bassline on Boss is accented by a “we-real-cool” delivery and a hip narrative that fits perfectly.

Daniel Merriweather guests on the upbeat but corny “never-give-up” anthem Things Get Better. You’ve heard the message many times before from either a record or your momma. No matter how true the message is, you can’t help but roll your eyes to yourself. The album closes with Hit The Road, a Broadway jazz interpolation of the Ray Charles classic featuring BIONIX and Treasure Davis. It that lacks the charm of the original and is missing Ray’s drug-fueled frenetic gravitas.

Leanin On Slick is not music for dummies. There is a simple sophistication running throughout that succeeds because it doesn’t bother to compare itself to other, more juvenile music. It exists in its own space without defending its position or undermining other, more prevalent forms of Rap music. Aceyalone has made house cleaning, midnight drive music. If you know what that means, then you will appreciate this album immensely. Lean, people.

Subscribe To Planet Ill