Hip Hop has always thrived on youthful energy to keep the urban subculture from falling prey to stagnation, retrogression and mediocrity. This is the major reason why it has yet to fall prey like other illustrious musical forms (i.e., Ska and Doo Wop) that survive today by solely focusing on the fruits of the past. At the same time, it makes it especially hard for any rapper, no matter how young, talented and hard-working he may be, to remain relevant without being accused of “falling off” two or three albums into his career.
Keith Murray, the Long Island native/Legion of Doom/Def Squad affiliate who achieved considerable fame in the mid 90s for his verbal dexterity and infectious humor, takes this challenge in stride. On his sixth album, Intellectual Violence, Keith skillfully attacks the microphone with frenzied energy and unrestrained rage to prove that time has neither dulled his obvious verbal talent nor forced him to look outside of Hip Hop music for well-deserved fame and fortune. Although each song contains moments of Murray‘s technical brilliance and complex lyricism, especially in his innate ability to effortlessly create memorable metaphors at the drop of a hat, the majority of the tracks utterly fail to redeem his status due to an over-reliance on thug stories that are devoid of humor.
No longer happy to just make up intricate verses that veer towards the intellectual and nonsensical, the 2008 Keith Murray is a lot more street-oriented, a lot more serious and a lot more grimier than one would expect. “U Ain’t No Gangsta” is a prime example of the Long Island wordsmith’s reconstructed focus and flow. The MC drops lyrical death threats to wankstas all across the globe with the brutal honesty and earnest conviction of someone who has gone through the prison system and survived. “Pen Life” is another standout track that showcases the evolution of the Def Squad rapper from naively celebrating the playfully cerebral to exploring the violent reality of life in jail. Keith uses his lyrical prowess to create a vivid display of intensity, bravado and wisdom that is rarely heard in commercial rap songs these days.
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Other songs on Intellectual Violence make his lyrical obsession with “keeping it gully” sound overtly redundant and less noteworthy because they hardly showcase the Long Island MC’s comedic brilliance. For example, “Def Squad” is a supposed return of Erick Sermon, Redman and Keith on the Hip Hop scene. Keith, sounding too focused on verbally displaying his thuggish behavior, is nowhere near as fun, energetic and playful as the rest of the crew who manage to steal the limelight over the party track. “Blokka Blokka” is another example where the his obsessive gun talk clouds his natural ability to be both witty and entertaining (not to mention the fact that the hook is annoying and the production is mediocre at best). Last but not least, “Anger” is an intricate display of Murray‘s rhyme skills but the redundancy of the subject matter and his decidedly less-than-playful approach make this track somewhat painful to hear.
In this day and age of “Pop Hop” one-hit wonders and hook-friendly thug lyricists, well-established rappers who are more intellectual in nature must find an ingenious way to remain commercially viable or be forced to return to a life of obscurity. On his newest album, Intellectual Violence, Keith Murray proves that he can adapt his complex lyrical style to the current state of Hip Hop with a more direct and no-frills approach to the art of storytelling. The MC forgoes the legacy of his intelligently bugged-out rhymes and comedic wordplay for dark tales of life in the pen, albeit with less-than-stellar results. Will old and new fans respond to Keith‘s newfound approach to rhyming? Like anything worth it’s weight in gold, only time will tell.
