THE REAL OF 2024 Book Preview: THE BAD SEED
#ScienceOnMusic Review of The Bad Seed's Four Finger Ring II LP that will appear in my upcoming book, The Real of 2024
By Sunez aka SkillastratorLO
The epitome of charisma, unorthodox timing, and fluctuating inflections merging with a unique timbre of aggression and conversationalism, The Bad Seed is a complete MC that most do not completely hear…
…Truly becoming more and more underrated the greater his work becomes epitomizing the invisibility of supremacy that makes this Invisible Renaissance era so. Truly a dynamic charisma merged with the technical skill to make any record a true work of performance art, each song is a show with Bad Seed, especially if he has lots on his mind. Nowhere is that more apparent on the sublime collection, Four Finger Ring II. A great man, going through tribulations, having insights that counter the programmed narrative and with a fury against all that have the damned nerve to question his supremacy, the entire FFRII is an attack. The opening trumpets and thick bounce thump break with hold button bass hit are all for war on the opener, “Docile” and he stomps with a staccato flow, “I don't look for likes or no validations/ From niggas that be caught up, get you brought up on allegations/ Dealin' with you, dude, shit, it's gon' take a lot of patience/ Ain't no way in hell, movin' forward, I'll tolerate this…” that goes in and out brief pocket straight rides just as right after these quoted bars. His immediately most controversial songs are “Sucka Shit Condonement (Us vs Dem)” and “Happy Birthday Jay-Z” where he wraps shocking hooks on powerful jewels. On the latter, Megz throws a wail high on a riding bump track in a perfect tempo where Seed throws, “...It's cool you like these rappers, I'm all for it/ Y'all be calling it classic before you hear the chorus/ I be trying to scroll past that, trying to ignore it/ Niggas be dick riding like they get paid for it/ Seen a nigga wish hoes happy birthday, I laugh…” The amount of quotable lines are astounding as “Thinking cause we speak online, we on some peer shit/ A peer is somebody equal measure and value/ Meaning when shit get done, they don't dial you/ Niggas shopping for personality, clean up on aisle two,” and ultimately summating with “How you fighting over a rapper, don't even know him,” with a chorus wishing Happy Birthday to celebrity rappers and entertainers. Poignant and hilarious. The power in Bad Seed’s insights shared is that with all the charisma, boisterousness and MC top dominance looking down at competition he still has an easy way of relaying sincerity. Particularly with a real build as on “Sucka Shit Condonement..” leading off with “We can agree to disagree. I ain't sensitive, this is G. And I don't really care if you mad or start distancing…” Then absolutely truth telling with, “Popular niggas don't want us here/ they want us out/ When you a threat/ niggas know how off the hook it get…” criticizing popular rappers (certainly the wack and more detrimentally the great ones) who are absolutely clueless of the actual reality of the best Hip Hop, this underground better understood as this vast universe in its Invisible Renaissance. Seed’s ending commentary is absolutely undeniable and I cosign that as a journalist/artist embedded in this as well. With all that, FFRII is about even more from his trials dealing with depression on the powerful “The Fog pt.1 & pt.2” where he confesses, “I try to breathe, it's a quick stink/ anxiety pumping for nothing, there's something I can't get straight/ Doc gave me Sertraline, I was apprehensive/ I never popped pills, didn't think it's that expensive/ If the price is losing my mind, that tag is quite expensive/ Life be life-ing tho, I see no other incentives/ no/ Depression got my mind flipping on me/ telling me shit that ain't true, it's like it's sitting on me…” From a Freakshow beat with a choir wind breezing through the bass grunts on “..Pt. 1” to 88 BlessedBeats’s high clangs on slow sharp growling bass and drums on “..Pt. 2” where he declares his aloneness in this, “It's hard though, hurting inside, broken like branches/ Hoping my brain don't leave a nigga in pastures/ I call people for help, nobody answer..” There is no resolve. It just is and there is a feeling of doom as one takes it all in. The magic is that the somber realities and grim truths are all merged in exceptional rhyme techniques. The “Revenge Of The Fallen” verse on CJ Dove’ double trumpet talk opens with hook after hook that grabs the listener. From “ Lights, camera, action, you're on/ I send the shooters out, click, clack, and you're gone…” the verse is engrossing. These stylistics propel the Seyes Finest sharp plod break on “Shooting At The Laundrymat” as he layers, “...This verse hold weight just like a key of dope/ No matter what you think, heard or believe, see the goat/ They love me the most/ you fuck around and you be disposed/ The doors open but we keep them closed/ Rolling deep to show/ deconstruct/ decompose…” or the dissonant burst flow of “Tek & Steele” on a thickened drums and a mystery movie bass melody on the chorus by Murda Megz with rhyme schemes of superb spacing as, “...Real and realer/ You don't own this/ You have shown this/ Mediocre/ Ain't seen nothin'/ Even closer/ He a poser/ Alley-oop/ Dunk on him/ Now he a poster…” On the high wail woo fluctuations on cymbal crashing of CJ Dove’s “Ironman” he offers stark visuals that honor Tony Starks with such dynamic details as, “Mika told me son tried to smash, he had halitosis/ Some fool, vagnial, Cottonelle, super soft/ Frontin' like he Muslim, he not/ I knock his kufi off/ Convertible, son at the stoplight, his kufi on/ Look like I jumped off the top rope, the way I took it off…” The honoring continue with “6 Millions Stories” with Shade Cobain flipping the same bass melody on drums that also work where Bad verses breathlessly, yes, another flow. More musical commentaries on the time on Nam Nitty’s choiring and low bass heart pump on “Civil War,” while Bad Seed knows who he is and what he bars on through the vocal quip on bass groove from Nam’s “Full Metal Jansport.” The most telling reality of this LP is that it not only stands as an album of the year candidate but if this was Bad Seed’s only album ever, he’d be known as a great MC. Absolutely Essential.