Album Review: Z-Trip - "Shifting Gears"

Z-Trip became one of my favorite DJs after watching the documentary "Scratch;" there's a half-hour special feature on the DVD where Zed Tripplin himself provides the viewer a quick-and-dirty tutorial on how to be a DJ. I found more respect for him after downloading a few sets of mp3s off the internet off a now-defunct free server; there were great undiscovered gems, like some shows he did with Galactic, as well as a swank house party in Miami where he blended, with ill effect, Christina Aguilerra and AC/DC.

When word dropped of his first major label release, "Shifting Gears," my purchasing this was a no-brainer. I had high expectations, and I wasn't disappointed. This is a very ambitious album, as it appears to trace a path through the history of rap music, from old school to new, and, minus a few minor missteps along the way, succinctly does the job, adding touches of irony along the way.

Minus the beginning skitch, the album kicks off into high gear with "Listen To the DJ," a paean to rap music crafted by Trip in association with Soup (nee Zaakir) of Jurassic 5, the shortest member of the group. Zaakir's lyrics are wrapped up Christmas present-tight by Z-Trip's reliance on traditional soundbytes that the Jam Master Jay's and Terminator X's used to love to scratch into the jams formed by their cohorts. I mean, really, where did the original "hoo hah!" and "you don't want none" lyrics come out of, anyway? These are background add-ins that I've heard for decades. It lent the track a very nostalgic feel, and is a very good way to kick off the album.

Track 3 is "All About the Music," featuring hip hop veteran Whipper Whip. Following the powerful track before it, it falls short of being great, but in the context of a rap history revue, it's not a bad jam.

#4 the hard way is "The Get-Down," performed by Lyrics Born. The track isn't anything remarkable, but it resembles the sound of a Sugarhill Gang-Kurtis Blow back alley knife fight. "Party people in the place to be" kind of lyrics were passe by the mid-80's, so it just doesn't gel completely. Now, I don't pretend to tell anyone how to program CDs, but were it me, I'd have switched this track and #2.

Tracks 5 & 6 - "About Face" and "Furious," respectively - are the obligatory DJ "show off" cuts that DJ-driven releases must include, if they are going to be a complete work for any turntablist. Of the two, "About Face" is my favorite so far, as Z cuts and scratches what sounds like a high school drum line into one of the illest bits of self-expression ever laid to wax. I skip over "Furious," because sometimes, a lot of DJ stuff only goes so far. Like at the Jurassic 5 concert in Asheville, DJ Numark for 45-50 minutes = not so bad; DJ Numark for 60+ minutes = a little tiresome.

Numeral 7, "Take Two Copies," grates on my nerves. Busdriver, the MC on this track, offers relentless lyrical delivery that rarely pauses to give the listener rest. Now, I don't mind when an MC like Gift of Gab does it, because some MCs know when to break up the flow at intervals, which serve to emphasize the lyrical command that he has. With Busdriver, though, I didn't want to keep up, and there weren't enough nifty tricks from Z-Trip's wheels of steel to make me want to, either.

"For My People" isn't a bad track. Not a great track, but not a bad one either. Mostly filler, although I do dig Supernatural, the more I hear of him. In the history lesson concept of this album, this would probably represent the early- to mid-90s, when most all of rap music was filler. Kwame, what?

Now, I have never heard of Luke Sick, but his turn on "Bury Me Standing" is blazing. Z-Trip shows that he can tear up any kind of musical style, not just breakbeats and drumlines but guitar riffs and metal feedback. Luke Sick's lyrical flow isn't amazing, but it's solid, in a Freddie Foxx a/k/a Bumpy Knuckles kind of way.

"Breakfast Club" is a standout. Brought to you by Supernatural and Murs (who I grew to like from his work with Living Legends), this is a rundown of not only Saturday Morning cartoon rituals, but also the cereals which made their viewing all the better. Honest to God, Will, you would love this album for this track alone.

"3rd Gear" sees Trip kick the DJ instrumental skills again. Not too bad; some DJ albums bunch too much of the DJ skills tracks together, and it gets monotonous. Luckily, everything is spaced out well here, and Trip saves enough skills so that each one seems fresh.

"Everything Changes," with Mystic and Aceyalone, kicks off the final four in a resounding way; honestly, when I hit this final stride of the album, I started here and played the final four tracks over and over. This jam is, what I've been slowly coming to appreciate from new rap music, a well-crafted love jam, with Aceyalone verbalizing the regret, and Mystic mocking him from far away. It's sets a nice mood.

"Walking Dead" f/ Chester Bennington ... steal it, download it, record it, call your radio station to request it. It's hot. That's all I can say.

Ian McKellan's Magneto opens "Shock & Awe," a scathing political criticism by rap's eldest statesman Chuck D. Interesting blend of metal and rap, ushed in by the man who helped the metal-rap fusion genre get off the ground when he recorded "Bring the Noize" with Anthrax, lo those many years ago. You can hear the years in Chuck's voice; this is a man disappointed with the world, where George Bush again threatens the global stability with cowboy politics and Flav is busy trying to bang some disorderd Swedish poon for the world to see on VH1. These are sad times indeed.

Finally, "Revolution," the final DJ skills track, is a blistering display. Everything works, from the breakbeat, the chorus in the middle, andthe quote, "If we make peaceful revolution impossible, we make violent revolution inevitable." The final third of the jam has everything coming back together to make the track smolder, like a symphony or a jazz improv. It's one that I listened to more and more.

I would highly recommend this album. It's retailing for a pretty reasonable price ... got mine in a "first week of release" sale at Manifest CDs for $7.99, from it's retail of $10.99 (or something like that.) You can buy worse shit at twice that, so give it a shot. Rating: 2 and 3/4 count