Album: Breakfast
Genre: Hip Hop/Rap
Release Date: March 5, 2012
Producer: Xaphoon Jones, Yuri Beats, iSHi
Label: Parlophone
I’m not normally an avid hip hop or rap listener, but this is almost everything I could want in an album. A 14 track aural banquet from beginning to end. So many layers, with intelligent use of samples and beats, along with frequent use of pianos and brass which has been appropriately coined “hip hop for indie fans”.
The indie rap group are from Philadelphia and are comprised of rapper Chiddy, and his sole beatsmith Xaphoon Jones. Its their first LP after a slew of critically acclaimed mix-tapes and Chiddy’s nine-hour freestyle session.
The biggest digression from Chiddy Bang’s earlier work is a lack of well-known samples. In the past, they’ve fused hip-hop with the likes of Radiohead, Passion Pit, and MGMT to produce party-inducing songs. Despite this, it is still an extremely clever and interesting album.
I just love the track Ray Charles where Chiddy Bang sample the legendary blues piano of Ray Charles and create an amazing blend of soul, hip hop, rap and even gospel. This soulful piano riff oozes retro charm. This is one of those songs that jumps out of the record player and into my body, taking over my limbs and making me move in ways I never knew I could.
Mind Your Manners, which ingeniously samples Swedish pop outfit Icona Pop’s song ‘Manners’, is also incredibly clever and catchy.
VV Brown’s vocal on Happening is another slice of soul-pop heaven, but it underlines the obvious Chiddy formula, of hooks so simple they resemble playground chants and nursery rhymes. The Philadelphia duo sampled MGMT’s Kids on their 2010’s global hit Opposite of Adults. They prove without a doubt that not growing up is their obsession.
The track Does She Love Me? has a perfectly formed three-note hook that sounds like a robot child, again, suggesting as if Chiddy Bang are only content in a state of arrested adolescence. Breakfast works less when the boys force themselves to act their age. The title-track is, strangely, one of the most uneventful tracks, and 4th Quarter, the final track, is anti-climatic. But all in all, a really great debut album from Chiddy Bang.
4 out of 5 kisses.
Written by Amy Bastow for the Kiss My Arts Show on Joy 94.9 – All opinions are mine. Copyright 2012.