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Liberator 4.1
K-OS, if you haven’t heard, is the best thing to come floating out of Canada since its cool clean air. He has developed a massive following in his hometown of Toronto and received major buzz with his debut release "Exit" due largely to his single and video for "Superstar, Pt. Zero." This musician/emcee showed promise and undeniable talent with Exit; however, the project was flawed due to its lack of focus. He is influenced by just about every style and genre under the sun, which has the potential to be confusing and disorienting to the listener. His new release, Joyful Rebellion, picks up where Exit left off and shows his tremendous growth since then. His smart, artful brand of hip-hop is quickly going to set the bar higher than most artists can reach. His music is overwhelmingly positive, but not preachy. You will hear no gun talk, alcohol commercials or women hating rhetoric, you will however hear music that will make you feel that dancing, or hell, even smiling is cool again. Like his eclectic soulful peers India Aire, The Fugees, and The Roots, K-os is helping to usher in hip-hop's post neo-soul era. K-os has successfully captured the spirit of early hip-hop and blended it with a futuristic style of his own with the confidence that only a complete artist can convey. The album's first single, "B-boy Stance," samples James Brown's over-sampled "funky drummer," only K-os manages to keep it fresh, literally. He also samples The Cure's "Love Cats" on his smash hit "Crabs In The Bucket," which further broadens the musical scope of the whole album. He makes like Michael Jackson on the disco romp of “The Man I Use To Be.” Like his first release, this album is musically all over the map but it's all worth listing to and has the potential to broaden minds -- which, in and of itself, is enough to turn all the pieces into one sweet-sounding whole. |
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