After the death of Francis M. last 2009, I knew from there I will lose interest in mainstream hip hop.... and I did. I have a huge respect for the Master Rapper and to me nobody can replace The Man From Manila, that's why for 4 years I've never known a home grown hip hop artist (well except GLOC9) or even paid attention to hip hop until early this year when I overheard a group of young dudes talking about FLIPTOP and all the "basagan" and I googled it and I was like - this is effin cool!! Then my cousin (Chris Escolano) told me that he'll be making a video for Ron Henley and I said Ron who?! All praises to Ron came from Chris so I guess he's worth checking.
First time I heard biglang liko I was impressed. The lyrics are comedic good and Ron Henley has a very wide imagination. So I bought his EP to check and listen the rest of the song.
ako ay paru-paro
nakadapo sa iyong damo
sa liwanag ang ganda mo
andaming nabibighaning gamo-gamo
Ron Henley's Walang Pang Titulo EP came in digipak-style packaging with a nice caricature of himself on the album cover but without the tattoo. The digipak has a high quality print, (MCA did a good job on this) I really like a high quality glossy album, it feels good in the hand and feels expensive and just add good vibes.
Gatefold album! another plus, a lot of room for more arts and other stuff. The outer piece of the album cover contains the track names which that side also doubles as the back cover and some song info and other artist who collaborated with Ron Henley on Making this EP was on the other side.
The inner gatefold contains the credits. The CD can be found on the center slit of the digipak which was not easy to take out the CD, I had a problem taking it out and I almost ripped the side of the slit.
| 1.) | Platito |
| 2.) | Venus |
| 3.) | Biglang Liko (ft. Pow Chavez) |
| 4.) | Atat (ft. Muriel) |
| 5.) | Langit (ft. Bea Valera) |
| 6.) | Hagdan (ft. Kat Agarrado) |
The audio quality of the CD was not bad, I burned it to my ipod classic using the highest bit rate an sounded really good over my Superlux headphones. I also tried playing the CD both in my car stereo and my CD Player at home and performs at the average, anyhow I did not expect an audiophile quality output for hip hop genre.
Out of the six songs I can pick 2 songs that I liked, "Biglang Liko" and "Atat". The beat at Biglang Liko is very catchy and I can classify the song as mainstream hip hop. The lyrics have a wide variety of imagination and I could interpret the lyrics as simple as the dude tries to score but it could mean different to other listener and maybe Ron Henley have a different meaning to it. Muriel's voice in "Atat" is very caressing and stimulating! that's all I can say!
The song "Hagdan" on the other hand is not on top of my list. It sounds like Eminem and there's a lot of anger, hate, and then right in the middle it bends towards having hope, I felt lonely after listening to the song - maybe it's just me, I just don't like sad songs.
Ron Henley's song have the same format of rap-verse-then-chick-will-sing-the-chorus, the thing that separates him from the rest was his poetry. Today I know there are different breeds of young generation and for sure a ton of them can relate to the stories of "Wala Pang Titulo"
Brother, just on the up and up, Ron has been around even before fliptop. His group, Stickfiggas, with the crafty Loonie predates fliptop. Their had been hip hop movements underground before the battle scene sprouted. I think Ron just had a personal hitch plus they're timing it properly since the market seems to be ready for good hip hop music. Just saying. Anyway, nice review. :)
ReplyDeleteBTW, if you like audiophile quality hip hop try The Roots.
Hey Bro thanks for the info! As I've lay'd down up there, I'm slowly going back to hip hop. The scene today is very different 10-15 years ago, it's just awesome that mainstream hip hop today does not in anyway make the hip hop scene more commercialized.
ReplyDeleteThe Roots rocks bro! I have a few CD especially they collaboration with other artist and I only have praises to them. I am yet to get my hands on the vinyl copy but would definitely get one and post 'em here!