These are the questions rolling around the mind of any fan of Canadian phenom K-Os, who managed to push the hip-hop music envelope not once, not twice but three times. His latest, Atlantis: Hymns For Disco, the antithesis of Nas Hip-hop Is Dead, doesn t wallow in rhetorical muck, it just gets down to the business of upping the creative ante.
The Trinidadian-born seer opens with old-school drop track Electrik Heat - The Seekwill, a straight, no chaser hip-hop blast complete with phrases such as Let the rhythm hit em.
But once you get to the unexpected bridge, broken down and sung, you re reminded of the trademark unpredictability of K-Os before being slapped with the psychedelic 60 s soul wet of the sample-less The Rain. Differences this time around include a less judgmental K-Os, eased up on commenting about the sorry state of hip-hop, more comfortable with the duality of his existence as emcee/singer and openly discussing his egomaniacal frailties. Eccentric as he is, dude s developing several signature sounds evident in the hand-clapping, thigh-slapping Fly Paper (reminiscent of Joyful Rebellion s hit Crabbuckit ); Equalizer, featuring his trademark hip-hop spaghetti western sound; and Sunday Morning, offering the electric vocals, rousing K-Os-esque beat and cinematic sound that defies categorization or even explanation.
Even his skits are eclectic with Born To Run starting off as an acoustic guitar driven piece only to be abruptedly ditched after the first verse.
And just when you thought you might have figured this guy out, he hits you in the gut with the glory tinged Valhalla, a surreal genre-devoid ride glowing like some sort of triumphant surfing song deftly incorporating rap. The wily Cat Diesel manages to combine live instrumentation including wicked string riffs, hiccup turntablism, Bela Lugosi keyboards, electronica and some other-level stuff.
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