Doomtree

If I tell you again that I am not really that big of a hip hop fan, you will probably be even less inclined to believe me after this post.  My interest in the genre has exponentially increased since I received this comment from a reader regarding my post about Snob Scrilla:

My problem with hip-hop is twofold: 1) not enough melodic content (it doesn’t have to be in singing), and 2) unrelatable lyrical content. I like introspective lyrics rich with metaphors and ambiguity.

If you know of such artists — I’m all ears!

If you want you can read the novel of a response I wrote, or you can be satisfied with this nutshell: generally I agree that most hip hop is unmelodious, un-relate able, extrospective (fun new word), etc…but, as within all genres (except country maybe.  Ha!) there are those artists that search outside the boundaries and expectations the labels of genres (i.e. Rap, Rock, Indie, Metal) tend to set.  So while I might not care for the genre of hip hop as a whole, there are bits, usually buried deep under all the other crap, that still make my ears bleed.

A prime example of this for me is the artist P.O.S.

Despite the fact that his album, “Audition” was released in 2006, it was easily one of my favorite albums of 2007.  I must have listened to that album hundreds of times, and more than one of the songs on that album found its way in my “Top 25 Most Played” list on iTunes (not an easy achievement, I might add).

To make this post more relevant to the time, however, I introduce to you Doomtree, a project featuring P.O.S, as well as some lesser known artists (Cecil Otter, Dessa, Lazerbeak,…so very many others).  What sets them apart form other hip hop artists is the fact that the muscial background of this Minneapolis based group is punk rock, so they spin the hip hop genre in a whole new, way more interesting, way.  Its aggressive, not angry.  It’s introspective, not arrogant.  It says something other than “I want to sex you up hott baby.”  In other words, it is everything that Ludacris is not.  Which is a very good thing.  Because Ludacris makes my brain bleed.  That is called an aneurysm,  which is bad.  Doomtree makes my ears bleed.  That is called good music, which is good.

Doomtree-Accident (removed 2/13/09)