Anyone who followed underground Hip Hop in 2000 remembers being enthralled
by Mind Over Matter, Zion I‘s widely-praised debut album.
Hip Hoppers couldn’t get enough of the indie group’s compelling combination of
space-age sounds, perceptive lyrics and all-around creativity. Seven years
later, the Cali representatives are once again the topic of discussion among Hip
Hop’s subterranean followers with the release Street Legends, a DJ Rick
Lee-helmed mix CD. With Amp Live
once again handling production duties and Zion
resuming his role as the “copper tone
chiller with the little kid voice,” the duo is set to keep fans talking
about the backbone of Heroes in the City
of Dope.
Unfortunately for Zion I, its
followers will likely focus on the group’s misguided foray into hyphy – the
frenetic music-based culture that has defined the Bay Area in recent years. Amp Live and Zion‘s decision
to embrace the dominant sound in their community is understandable but still
strange and ill-fated. It makes no sense that a group heavily-praised for its
inventive music and rich content would experiment with a genre that typically
doesn’t come close to matching the substance of their previous work. Though “Roll
On Out,” featuring hyphy forefather Mac
Dre, may spark some show stopping in Oakland, Zion I‘s attempts at going dumb are otherwise out-of-place. “Do
That Thang” falls well short of the standards the group has set set, and the
ringtone-ready synths of “Loose Your Head” digs the hyphy hole even deeper. The
stunna-shade-induced madness only worsens when Zion says, “Stunt now, you
gon’ pay later/Big booty girl, that’s a black man’s savior.“
Zion I later rediscovers its
comfort zone and returns to form with quality joints like “Family Business.”
The intoxicating remix to “Sorry,” packing a reworked composition of
spirit-tingling flutes and a new chorus, also illustrates how exceptional the
duo can be when it makes great music without trying to keep pace with emerging
trends. They sound even more organic on the highly-observant “Oxygen.” Amp Live‘s bouncy soundscape, featuring
a sped-up vocal sample and multi-layered keyboard sounds, provides the
motivation for a rejuvenated performance from his rap counterpoint. He helps
rekindle the fire that wanes in early in the mix CD when Zion raps, “But boys turn to
men, and men to savages/According to U.S. statistics and averages/And so we
grew up with these hopes and dreams/ Like the world didn’t label us as dopes
and fiends.“
There are several more great songs for DJ
Rick Lee to juggle, including the chopped-up keys of “Critical,” the Aceyalone-assisted “Cheeba Cheeba” and
the rap-game-as-crack-game extended metaphor of “Club Servin’.” But many of
those great songs have already appeared on previous releases like 2003’s Deep Water Slang V2.0, so why create a
new release and tack on music first heard four years ago? That decision seems
especially peculiar considering that Zion
I is a critically-acclaimed group frequently praised for its
forward-thinking music. Street Legends
finds the duo trapped between holding on to its celebrated past and trying to
keep up with its cultural present. In the end, Zion I fails at completing either feat, causing its latest effort
to be anything but legendary.