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Did you know that Suffocation drummer Mike Smith made a rap album? Neither did I until recently. As “Grimm Real,” Smith made Demise of the Clone in 1999, when he was out of Suffocation. Here’s an excerpt from an interview from several years ago.
I’m a lyricist so I had a lot of time on my hands and I used it to put together some songs on top of metal tracks, even some Suffocation ones. The reason I did was because I hated the way rappers started putting hip-hop lyrics on top of metal tracks, when they know nothing of what they are doing and calling it something new. So I got pissed off about it and I recorded some tracks. I was even approached by Sony to put it out but I decided not to. Word got out that I did this though and so the fans want to hear it.
I certainly wanted to hear it. Few things make me smile like celebrity music albums. But Smith’s record — the few tracks I heard, anyway — was not the trainwreck I expected. In fact, it’s completely respectable late-’90s underground New York hip-hop. With dramatic pianos, strings, and synths (all played by Smith), the production recalls the Wu-Tang Clan and Gravediggaz. Smith’s flow is wordy but skilled. It is also rather hostile. As one review put it, “Just about every song on here is about how wack everyone else in the industry is. This guy really needs to smile sometime.”
Here are three tracks I found from the album. I didn’t feel like shelling out big bucks for the CD on Amazon. (But if you do, go here
That's a hundred times better than the new Jay Z that I attempted to listen to today.
Thanks for finding this bizarre gem?! If I weren't broke right now I'd invest in a used copy and share it with everyone.
Wow. Just wow. I had no idea this existed….and it's surprisingly not bad. Hopefully the rest of this album will surface somewhere.
Ya know, I'm not much of a rap fan. A few months back I was looking for something different so I picked up both Wu-Tang Clan's 1st and Cypress Hill's 1st. I continue to be blown away by both of them. They actually got me excited about rap. So, now I'm a rap dabbler.
This stuff is definitely influenced by Wu-Tang Clan. So, it's not original enough to be good, production wise. But, he's got a pretty cool flow, which is truly shocking. I respect the guy for trying something like this and not completely embarrassing himself.
Obviously, he's not approaching this with too much ambition. But if he had been, I wonder how the Hip-Hop community would embrace a death metal drummer breaking into their scene.
Weird aside: the word verification password for me to post this just happened to be rapica. What a serendipitous portmanteau… Maybe that's a better genre tag than rap metal. Maybe not. How about rappocation?
"Lyrically, while talented, Grimm Real is hampered by his limited subject matter. Just about every song on here is about how wack everyone else in the industry is. This guy really needs to smile sometime. "
That sums him up well. Solid talent, miserable dude.
"So, it's not original enough to be good"
This statement is why 90% of music isn't good. When people focus on nothing but originality most of the time the end result sucks. There are only twelve notes. There is nothing wrong with realizing what you want to do musically and trying to do that to the best of your ability.
Replace the word good with great. That more adequately expresses what I meant.
Anyway, I look at it this way: There is only a certain amount of time I have to listen to music in this lifetime. I'd rather spend it listening to musicians with a unique vision than to those who do really good mimicry. That's not to say that I don't do that. I actually do way too much of that. In fact, most of what I listen to is most likely peppered with ripped off ideas and I never even realized it.
No matter how hard I try to be aware of everything, the simple fact is, I'm not omniscient. However, when I KNOW that an idea has been aped from an artist who I love and have experienced, why spend time on the copycat when I can spend time on the originator? Sometimes I'll discover a musical idea from an artist who has recycled an older idea. Then, someone will inform me that that artist has ripped off the idea from someone else. It's pretty difficult to remove the connection you have felt to the copycat. I don't think that's a problem. What is a problem is if I chose to remain in ignorance of the originator. Once I understand the originator, it helps me to put the copy cat that I love in proper context. I find that to be extremely rewarding.
Maybe if I had heard Mike Smith's rap album before discovering Wu-Tang Clan, I might have felt differently about it. but for now, I'm much more interested in exploring Rakewon's 1st album than Mike Smith's…
Actually, non-Western cultures sometimes subdivide the octave into more than 12 notes (e.g., Indian music).
Very few ideas are original – including this one.
The first round of Wu-Tang solo albums packed some serious heat (Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, GZA).
I decided to absorb them in order of release. The first one I got was Gravediggaz' 6 Feet Deep (Niggamortis [Killer title!] [I love that RZA calls himself The Rzarector in Gravediggaz]). That one is almost as great as 36 Chambers. Now I'm on Method Man's Tical. So far, I'm not that impressed. Up next: ODB's first.
Man, dude is really cramming syllables into some of these lines. Also, the double bass in the beats rules. Kind of cool. Thanks, Cosmo.
Miskatonic, if you're digging that sparse early 90s New York sound, try the Boot Camp Clik next:
Black Moon – Enta da Stage
Smif-N-Wessun – Dah Shinin
And of course Mobb Deep – The Infamous.
taking this whole wigger slam thing to a new level, i'm more of a hip hop kid into metal than the other way around. i've been trying to find the whole thing for a while.