The Dopity Dip-Dap Dopeness

Luke: The Dopeness Review

Introductory Thoughts

As a man who has listened to this album, and the instrumentals, more than twice, I feel I can safely say that, other than the creators, I have heard this CD more than anyone else on the planet. After my second listen, while completely shit-faced, I came to feel a serious connection with it, and you can too.

The Raps

Luke's verses range from cocky to sorrowful, but always with the constant flow of someone who knows his craft. His lyrics are clever like Eminem, often weaving multiple lines together in complex jokes and metaphors that take a few listenings to fully appreciate, but he flows like a Jay-Z with his ability to just plow through verses with the authority of a much more experienced rapper.

Some of the quips and puns had me laughing with their cleverness, and his abiltiy to combine modern pop culture with retro references is a serious talent. I dare any modern day rapper to sound as cool while discussing Blue's Clues.

The Beats

BG weaves a story with this album. While at first glance, these may seem full of horns and drums usually associated with a happy feeling, this album is much more morose than you'd ever believe. Now I don't mean that in an emo way, because the hopelessness in The Dopeness is not meant to be depressing.

Hip Hop has always been about struggle, starting with the early samplings of 70's soul music, it's meant to uplift with its message. This may sound backwards, but it works because knowing someone else feels sorrow makes us feel a connection to the music. This is what helps us pull ourselves out of that 2:30 pm funk and helps us get through the rest of the work day. Music is what gets us through when all else seems hopeless. Even the funkier beats manage to stay cool by adding a feeling of swagger.

Only certain people can pull this off, like how Hank Moody can still come off as a lovable innocent while banging a chick wheelbarrow style; it's all about honesty. I was around for most of the process while BG was making these beats, and by locking himself is a poorly furnished, small apartment in one of the most depressing towns in Massachusetts, BG tapped into a section of the human spirit most people feel, but cannot express. That is what makes this album so relatable. It weaves familiar musical elements like Santana, Jack Johnson, 70's soul and funk and my personal favorite, Toto. (It's there- listen closely at the end of Understood for Africa).

BG once told me that his beard can sometimes represent the level of his own personal suffering and while writing this album he looked like a dirtier, homeless, Lebowski.

NOTE TO THE PUBLIC: this was all for your musical enjoyment, cherish it.

Could This Be A Voice For The New Generation?

I fuckin' hope so. We're passed the pissed off rappers of the 90's and 2000's. Jay-Z: news flash, you are no longer slinging rocks on the corner. Eminem, you're no longer poor, stop pretending to pacify your audience of 13 year old boys. As Bart Simpson put it, "making teenagers depressed is like shooting fish in a barrel."

Luke manages to break a mold by being fully honest about himself and his nature. He and BG are both well educated, clever, white kids who didn't have to grow up on the street to realize that the world can be a fucked up place. I love Be the Smooth You Want to See in the World. It's honest and refreshing. Plus, it doesn't rely on objectifying hos to be sexually relevant. Have you heard about this poor generation of girls growing old and finding out they have prolapsed rectums from taking Slick Rick too seriously? It's fucked up, google it.

It's those types of crazy stories that make Luke such a nice change. Listening to this album I can't help but think, "Thank God I'm not the only one who worries about what the kids are hearing on MTV, because it sure as shit isn't music." By injecting samples like Curtis Mayfield and Bill Withers, BG is introducing a generation to a funk they may have missed. Growing up, I thought I loved Hip Hop because the music was unlike anything I'd ever heard. Then I grew up and realized that most of them barely even change what they sample and rap to. Example: Kanye's My Way Home.

But while Kanye is popular with the youth, most kids claim to hate "oldies" not knowing it's the same thing. In a music world of ever growing annoyingness, filled with ref whistles, car horns, sirens, and lazy hooks (I'm a B); The Dopeness is the type of album that gives me hope. Not for my generation, cause we're fucked in the head already, but just maybe, if this is what the kids could listen to, maybe in a few years we'll have more scholars and less prolapsed rectums.

Sidenotes and General Ramblings

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For those lazy folks who won't listen to the whole album, the stand out track is Understood. I may be prejudiced as I listened to the beat on repeat as it was being made, but the added voice of this chick named Maria is beatifully haunting as it plays throughout the track.

The stolen De La Soul beat feels a little out of place, but is saved by some slick singing on the auto-tuned hook.

Congratulations to Luke for managing to find the only 3 good quotes from The Wackness. I loved the intro; it is possibly the best CD begining I've ever heard. I could listen to a fucked up Ben Kingsley all day long.