Droppin' Science Fiction

The Mighty Underdogs – Droppin’ Science Fiction
Reviewed by Sadie O., 10/18/08
Diverse and often frankly crazed Bay Area hip hop with great pedigrees (as it were) and guests. Everything from gangsta to smooth soul to old school to beatboxing with dog barks is fair game. Got some serious stuff, some goofy stuff, and lots of really terrific sounding stuff. This is my town, yo, I LIVE here – how damn lucky can a person be?
Mostly cleaned – single “shit” on track 2. I like 5, 11 and 14 best.
1. 2:01 ***boom! Forceful midtempo march with a funky shake, machine gun rap. I just wish it was longer… Ends with kiddies.
2. 2:09 FCC: “shit” **harps and scratches (sure, why not?) fun boasting rap. Last few seconds are spoken interchange.
3. 3:14 **midtempo minimal soul shuffle with shakers lending an urgent sound. Hard times rap. Pretty singing by Julian Marley – not much of Damien in evidence.
4. 4:08 ***slow and hard beat, gangsta reality rap. Feedback adds an appropriate soundtrack. Whew, that’s serious…
5. 3:53 ****uptempo ultra swingy mambo baby, high speed rap – fun! Suddenly stops and goes into rambling talk about dogs.
6. 3:43 ***manic electronica with a slinky groove behind it, crazy stuff – female singing that sounds like theremin, bizarre raps…
7. 3:02 ***human beatbox and crazed laughter – nuts! Total diss – but hilarious.
8. 3:47 **sweet and mellow but uptempo jazz groove with piano and fretless bass.
9. 0:54 Ha! Beatboxing with dog barks.
10. 2:57 **midtempo smooth groove, philosophical rap with lots of internal rhymes.
11. 3:15 caveat: “Goddamn” x several ****a few tings, then terrific midtempo bump with lots of fun noises. Mentions of the Bay Area.
12. 4:08 *pretty uptempo soul shake with ethereal female vocals, pretty singing, poignant love song.
13. 3:02 ***militant sounding old school hip hop, rather naughty story about a sexy girl, but who cares when the sound is so killer… Some mad Latin percussion towards the end.
14. 3:55 ****downtempo phat strut, great guest rappers. I may have mentioned that I wanna have Chali 2na’s 2-headed love child…
15. 4:30 **sweet and rather anthemic sounding. Hooray! Ends with half a minute of hums and chimes.