Review Summary: Me in my room writing rhymes, To listen when you barbeque outside.
I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with Hip Hop. Within the genre I find it easy to hear music and artists that I do not like. There is so much WTF within the genre that when I find an artist I do like, it’s a special moment.
Growing up I always listened to what my brothers did. One brother was deep into Metal and my other brother was deep into Brit-Pop. I jumped aboard the metal train cause at the time I just couldn’t’ handle the likes of Oasis, Blur and Pulp. Since my brothers didn’t like Hip Hop, I decided I wouldn’t like it as well and only ever referred to the genre as cRap (cause I was EDGY) with having little to no knowledge of it.
This was until I was on my Schoolies (end of high school party for those that aren’t Aussie) cruise travelling around New Caledonia with three of my best mates and countless other fresh 18-year-olds. I cannot remember too much of what happened on that fortnight of mayhem, but I do remember the first time I listened to ‘Flowers In The Pavement’ by Bliss n Eso – and my world was changed.
Bliss n Eso are an Aussie Hip-Hop group that come from the suburbs that I come from in Sydney, Australia. They consist of MC Bliss: an American who moved over to Australia when he was 13, Esoterik: Australian born MC and DJ Izm the producer of the group. They have released 7 full lengths to date and maybe none were as important to me as their debut release ‘Flowers in The Pavement’.
Lyrically, there are two sides to ‘Flowers in The Pavement’. Like most Hip-hop albums this release has a mixture of ‘sillier’ tracks/skits and more ‘serious’ tracks. Whilst their flows and rhymes work no matter what they are doing it’s when they take on more serious topics where they truly shine. Tracks like ‘Rubbed the Lamp the Wrong Way’ and ‘Pigs in the Porn Trough’ have some fun lines and great wordplay but they are silly and almost immature in nature. They will drop the silliness and skits for later releases but on here, they don’t detract from the overall effect and feeling of the album. (although on my very first listen I was really confused by the little skits throughout – as a dumb metalhead yo)
In the moments when they take on more serious topics, it’s easy to see why Bliss n Eso stand out as true icons of the Aussie Hip Hop Scene. ‘Hip Hop Blues’ talks of touring and the shady side of the music scene. ‘Headless Princess’ a 7-minute epic that breaks down the end of a relationship and has one of my all-time favorite verses by Eso. ‘This Is For You’ is an ode to friends of the past and fans of the future and my personal fav track ‘Watchdog Water Dragons’ a 5 minute reflection on what it is like growing up in Australia and trying to find yourself.
The album is pretty stacked at 17 tracks, with 3 skits and an instrumental there is a lot to take in. Musically and lyrically the first half of the album really relies on the more comedic tone and sillier skits whilst the back half of the album really takes it to the level of iconic and has a great feature from Ethic (Debaser) on ‘Headless Princess’ thrown in for good measure. ‘Vagina Ice’ has a really nice smooth beat behind it and ‘The Tunnel of Love’ has some nice mixing by Izm.
Why was my world changed when I listened to this album? Well for one, I heard an Aussie accent doing something that I thought only Americans could AND they were making references to places I live and feelings that I felt. I was 18, had just finished school, wasn’t going to Uni, didn’t have a job lined up and really had no idea what I wanted to do and ‘Flowers in The Pavement’ not only made me feel like I wasn’t alone and a total *** up in this crazy ass world, but also opened my ears to a whole new world of music not only for listening but for creating .
Standout Tracks:
Watchdog Water Dragons
Headless Princess
Tunnel Of Love
Weatherman
