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Review Summary: The Original 11:11 Sessions is a hip hop album turned documentary that provides a fascinating glimpse into the life and mind of an artist in crisis. Mac Lethal is an interesting fellow. He made his name as a battle rapper – winning various local events (and eventually Scribble Jam 2001) and becoming a YouTube phenomenon in the process. He’s also been putting out records and mix tapes on his own Black Clover Records label for the better part of a decade. He’s quite prolific, releasing what amounts to about a new track or two every month since coming out with Men Are From Mars, Pornstars Are From Earth in 2001. Hailing from Kansas City, he wears his Midwestern roots proudly on his sleeve and has transitioned from a purely battle-based rapper to a punch-line frenzied emcee bent on complex lyrical wordplay and rhyme-schemes. With The Original 11:11 Sessions we find Mac simply beginning his full length debut for Rhymesayers Entertainment and eventually creating something infinitely more profound, containing astounding personal impact.
The first track, “Absolutely Nowhere,” fades in with a melancholy acoustic chord progression and Mac waxing philosophically, “when autumn burns black, so many people find a shell or often turn back, they’re scared as hell they might as well be silent plucking bloody feathers out of angels, I’m cleaning out my shotgun with my cocaine on the coffee table.” This lyrical gravity weighs heavily on the beginning of a Mac Lethal record, as he’s generally known more for his cynical and often humorous observations on society, pop culture and politics/government than anything of the personal nature. However, to truly understand where this record came from it’s important to know the story behind it.
Released in early 2009 but recorded in 2004, it wasn’t meant to be called “the original sessions” because it was supposed to be simply 11:11. The true thought process is left to the imagination of the listener, but it’s easy to make the logical leap that Mac never planned on this being more than a culmination of everything that had made him successful up to that point; and outside of “Absolutely Nowhere” – which was probably placed at the beginning of the album to set the tone, as the rest of the disc carries a chronological feel as if it was recorded in order – the early portion of the record finds Mac at his sarcastic, witty best. While he occasionally (and mostly with his tongue firmly planted in cheek) dabbles in rapper-posturing, he even admits at one point, "I still don't know the difference between word is bond and word is born." Details like these make the transition from external to internal extremely smooth; the listener is given a chance to know Mac on a surface level before finding themselves entranced with the personal elements present in the second half of the album.
Mac continues his signature form through the middle of the record, and even begins evolving into more of a story-teller in the mold of Slug from Atmosphere or Murs, and with possibly greater potential. “Bareknuckle Chris” finds the rapper creating a fictional town full of Silverstein-like characters that he would later expand into a sprawling 10 minute track on a 2009 EP called Town. The next track, “Oak Tree,” shows the real-life story beginning to unfold. The song details his feelings about the mother of his future child, and the album takes an epic turn for the worst from there. The Original 11:11 Sessions was indefinitely shelved after the emcee experienced an array of personal problems, and he had to take a break from recording, touring, promoting – everything. Upon returning from the self-imposed sabbatical he decided this set of songs (as well as their b-sides, which would later suface as The Love Potion Collection 2 and The Love Potion Collection 4) were far too painful to complete the sessions and subsequently perform them on a lengthy tour. So he scrapped the tracks and recorded the album that was released as 11:11 in the fall of 2007. After five years passed (and The Love Potion Collection 4 saw release following the moderate success of 11:11), the emcee saw it fit to release what many in his inner circle considered to be his magnum opus, resulting in The Original 11:11 Sessions.
Without ruining too much of the details for future listeners, “Oak Tree” is the last time Mac seems truly happy on this record; if the tales told over “Baby Powder,” “Halo,” “Tummy” and “Epilogue” don’t elicit some sort of emotional response or connection, chances are you're not listening. However, the album is immensely listenable – sporting beats from Lazerbeak, Ant, Cecil Otter and even Mac Lethal himself – and each line is delivered with so much sincerity and skill that the transition from traditional fun Midwest battle-rhymes and punch lines to a personal saga is seamless. The album is rife with piano samples, keys/synths, guitars, harmonica and some of the catchiest beats ever seen on a Rhymesayers record (which is saying something). “The Sketchbook” is an 11 minute monster of a track that finds Mac detailing the events of a wild, late-night poker game before delving into some extremely thought-provoking social commentary. “Baby Powder” (which features some excellent lines courtesy of fellow KC-native Joe Good) describes Mac’s initial troubles with his baby’s moma, albeit in an often hilarious light.
The Original 11:11 Sessions was originally striving to be the definitive Mac Lethal record, and it may very well be. But more than that, this is the story of David McCleary Sheldon – born lower middle-class in Kansas City, and living the same problems experienced by most every other 20-something out there. He’s at times funny, intelligent, depressed, angry and even pensive or profound. But most of all this record comes off as something real and honest in a genre that can often be anything but.
| other reviews of this album |
BigHans (5)
I'll take you on a journey into Absolutely Nowhere...
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Album Rating: 5.0
would someone please remove this girl's number from my phone? i'm gonna pop and leave my honey-drop a cheesy message. my crew might hit you with the money shot and key your lexus, because we're jealous poets and we bunny-hop our bmx's til we tummy-flop. i want the scummy props and pet-names, and maybe a cute girl to give me stomach-knots and chest pains. i wanna pick your brain, i wanna kiss the flames you harbor, i wanna know your name, i wanna pick away your armor.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
Holy shit! an Inveigh review!
good job bro sounds VERY interesting, I'll have to check this out
btw you messed up the encoding for "11:11" towards the end of the 3rd paragraph
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
hey thanks man, I actually realized I fucked up the order of the paragraphs a bit, so I edited that as well as that coding error. If you've never listened to Mac, this is a pretty good place to start. My first album from him was The Love Potion Collection 3, but pretty much everything he's done is at least good, if not amazing. This, Love Potion 2, 4 and 5 are probably the best.
Ironically, the actual 11:11 (the only one of these you could find at Best Buy) is probably his worst record. Still some good tracks on there though.
And yeah, I started reviewing again a couple weeks ago, hopefully pick the pace back up.. Thanks for the pos holmes.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
no prob
nice to see you reviewing again
why is your rating a 4 but the review is a 4.5?
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
huh, i dunno, that's weird. didn't even notice that. this is definitely a 4.5, and I've even thought about 5ing it at times.
edit: fixed.
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Hahahah Mac Lethal is awesome.
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
thanks for the pos Bulldog. Yeah man, if you like battles, look up Mac Lethal on youtube. the only time I saw him lose was against Illmaculate (who's dope as fuck at battling by the way, along with The Saurus), and Mac had him until he fucked up the last round.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
listening to 'Oak Tree' and it's amazing!
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
hell yeah, and I wouldn't even put that in my top 5 or 6 songs on the album man. It would be hard to rank though, every song is fucking great.
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
baby you're naturally beautiful, i mean your patterns are unusual. you're luscious, you're gentle and you're comfy and you tongue-tie my words. you sun-dry my nerves. love, bite then purr, you're so self-assured that you don't need me. and you don't wanna need me, so i'm a let you take me under sweetly, discreetly. your ambrosia gives me sensations until it stings, so i jotted down a couple things. you're pretty like a frida kahlo painting, you're pretty like the winter when it's raining or a clydesdale horse that's untamed. you're prettiest when lathered in sun flames and every moment spent with you is fragile and unchained. you feel like a crevice full of passion, you smell like a hundred million vestiges of jasmine. i repaint the hue a deep shade of blue and loudly i whisper this, loudly i whisper this for you.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
can you give me your top 2 or 3?
Tummy is real good too
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
Halo and Toad are up there. Tummy's definitely fantastic, as is Bloom, Absolutely Nowhere and Baby Powder. It's too hard man, they're all so different. I suggest listening to it in order, to get the full effect. If you're looking for more insight to the story at the end of the album, check out Take Me In My Sleep and Ashes to Ashley off The Love Potion Collection 4.
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
wow, inveigh you're awesome. i think i will check this out.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
you ARE awesome Inveigh! ???
listening to this right now thx Inveigh you've made me a Mac Lethal fan
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
um... yeah. dunno what to say about that. but there's a guy named random that does that kinda stuff occasionally too (like in my shoutbox even) so i'm pretty sure they're each others alt. whatever.
anways, I'm glad man, I feel like Mac gets no love because of that hiatus, and then when he released the other 11:11 it wasn't as good as his Love Potion albums (albeit catchier) and then he left Rhymesayers after fulfilling his contract obligation by releasing this. He still comes out with stuff, but it's completely independent through his Black Clover Records label, and pretty much the only way to buy his stuff is at shows and on Lethalville.net.
This, Love Potion 4 and 5 (and good portions of the first 3) are all incredible. I have almost 200 songs on my iTunes by this guy haha. I first met him when he was working the merch booth at a P.O.S. show in like 2005 or something. I thought he was just some street team guy or something, then he got on the stage and blew me away.
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i need to check this out. this is the second time i've read a review for this in the last two days telling me i need to grab this. pos
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
thanks man, DEFINITELY listen to this. I can't really think of a reason not to give this a 5, but I need to mull it over for awhile longer. Where else did someone review this? I haven't seen really any online, but I haven't looked since it first came out.
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nice review, who would you compare him to style-wise?
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
really tough call, he's pretty unique.. I mean, he's definitely not out of place on Rhymesayers alongside Atmosphere, Doomtree, P.O.S. and the like. He cites MF Doom as the biggest influence on his rhyme-scheme construction, and that's easy to see with all the multi-syllabic rhymes he uses (although less so on this than the love potions), sometimes he'll have lines where he rhymes basically every syllable, up to 5 or 6 syllables.
other thna that he's kinda his own thing, he collabs with Murs, Slug, Sage Francis, Aesop Rock among others, he's like the class-clown of that group of guys.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
really like 'Hammered'
and speaking of Sage Francis you said he was the most overrated undergound rapper? wtf? I liked that new song of his, reminds me of the old Sage
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