Cymarshall Law is a conscious dude. He may boast a lot and talk tough on occasion but for the most part he wants everybody to speak out against “the establishment,” live up to their potential, and reminisce about how Hip Hop used to be, good, as opposed to how he sees it now, bad. So can you criticize a guy for being conscious? You can when his consciousness changes from simply a great world outlook to streams of clichéd preaching that are meant to be universal but end up generic. Cymarshall stays so on message on his debut record, Hip-Hop In the Soul, that he becomes oppressive. That being said there is still a lot to like about the album.
Cy is originally from England but his voice is less Slick Rick and more Talib Kweli [click to read]. Like Talib, Cy spits forcefully and quickly, sometimes speeding up his verses so much so that it’s hard to follow the torrent of words but when it works it can be thrilling. In “I’m An Emcee” he lets fly with this funny, nostalgic couplet, “Tell me you the best and you rippin’ ’em all / But that’s like convincing Kevin that Winnie‘s a whore.” But while that song contains some of Cy‘s best rhymes it is also a prime example of one of the records major problems. Producer Mr. Joeker creates an awkward track featuring vaguely Middle Eastern strings, it doesn’t fit the song but Cy does his best to ride the beat. “Control” works better musically, the Middle Eastern flair is back in the form of sitar samples but the beat is sprier and less cluttered, but Cy delivers a few lame, paranoid verses about how the government is after all. That may be true but there is nothing convincing or threatening in what Cy says or how he says it, it sounds like a conspiracy theorist reciting pamphlets he found outside the bus station. KRS-One [click to read] guests on the track and while he seems to be repeating himself lately, the media bad, hip-hop is in trouble, etc., he manages to retain the anger and menace in his voice that lends his message more authority than your average conscious emcee.
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On the brighter side there are tracks like “Out of the Rain.” Joeker uses horn samples and ghostly chain rattles to give the track an ethereal atmosphere. Cy tells the story of three people that are dealt a terrible hand but rise above it. The content of the lyrics are nothing new, well tread tails of redemption but Cy recites them ably and the chorus is memorable, thanks to the contribution of Mary Lou. Another highlight is “Live While You Can,” Mr. Joeker deserves most of the credit for this track’s success. He mixes light piano lines and a shuffling beat to create a Jazzy backing track for Cy‘s “do the best you can while you can” speechifying. He actually uses lines like “strike while the iron is hot” and “keep your eyes on the prize.” Why use up valuable space on your debut record with worthless platitudes? This is especially troubling when the artist in question has shown, albeit briefly and sporadically, that they are capable of much better.
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And that’s the main problem with this album. Cymarshall Law has a lot of opinions about what is wrong with Hip Hop and the world in general, he also has a lot of ideas on how to fix them. Unfortunately both the wrongs and the rights are expressed in boring language, things you’d see written in the year book of a 17 year old. His best lines get lost among the clichés and the bland consciousness. Yes, things are messed up and yes we all need to do something about it but it so much more complex than what you’ll hear on Hip Hop in the Soul.
