After laying it low for some time on the live show and solo release-front, Carpetface makes a well-timed comeback with his politically and socially conscious single ‘Don’t get it twisted’. Serving poignant lyricism on the current global trends and their counter effects, served with a deep word-flow, the single offers a smooth and promising glimpse of what is to expected from his 2nd album, ‘Cognitive diss’, to be released later this year.
Carpetface is an international hip hop artist, producer and songwriter from London, who first hit the UK scene already back in 2002, with his debut single ‘Friday night sniper’, receiving a successful welcome with 6 months of playtime on MTV. 14 years later and hundreds of international shows later, supporting the likes of De La Soul, Breakestra and DJ Scruff, he has kicked off the new year promising to release a tonne of new material, to show he is not only back but also still going as strong as ever.
Considering his named influences drawn from hip hop legends such as Chuck D, Beastie Boys, Run DMC and Tribe Called Quest, it comes as a no surprise to the listener that his songs carry in themselves a strong message of ‘keeping it real’, in the name of hip hop. The heavy presence of base, fast-paced yet impeccably articulated pronunciation and the boom bap drums bringing it all together pays due respect to the early years of hip hop and is guaranteed to get the breakers going on the dance floor. However, Don’t get it twisted takes a slightly different turn from the perhaps assumed direction based on Carpetface’s prior releases. While you can hear the artist’s infatuation to jazz and blues alongside hip hop in most of his tracks, it is in Don’t get it twisted that he allows it to come out in full force, even downplaying or even sacrificing many other sound tricks to make the final product clear and stripped from anything that might disturb the message.
Don’t mix the rules with your information
Don’t mix worthwhile up with a trend
Indeed, as much as it is a song, considering its deep and enormously conscious lyrics, produced over this crazy period the world is facing, I can’t help but wonder if it is in fact the artist’s intention for the track to be studied and enjoyed as a political pamphlet, a call to action to those who might still be sleeping, as opposed to a straight up, albeit conscious, hip hop tune.
Don’t let your rights be something they read you
Don’t let your life be something they rule
Don’t mix tax with your contribution
Don’t mix an adult up with a man
Perhaps it is both, just as many legendary hip hop songs and albums have been, starting from Grandmaster Flash and Furious Five’s ‘Message’ to the likes of Saul Williams’s ‘The Noise Came from here’ and Lamar’s ‘The blacker the berry’. Carpetface offers a very up-to-date and plausible lyrical critique on the corrupted world system and propaganda tied to themes of individual sovereignty, but it is most notably his very personal sound and fluency mixed with the haunting harmonies that bring the message to the surface.
On the downside, flow as it may, for those hoping for another groovy boom-bap tune served for restless dance-loving feet, a disappointment might be expected in the horizon. As much as you find your head nodding alongside the track, and enjoying the depth added with the piano riffs on the background, it is more for the accuracy and poignancy of the rhymes, than for the irresistible rhythms. More than making you jump up and down, the stripped down sound world in the original mix perhaps envisages its listener to take all the thoughts in — and chew later. Be as it may, the track provides welcomed comfort for anyone, might say most particularly the older generation of fed up millennials, wishing to make some sense of this upside world and its all-round twisted relationships, while making you smile with the trending thoughts of wonder: ‘You know we used to make love but today we just screw’.
The song will be available on all digital platforms 30th January, and comes served with two additional mixes: A D&B mix by Philly the Kid of the Urban Warfare Crew, and another a more downtempo hip hop tune remixed by a French producer Djar One from Beats House records.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZW9HWjb00lk&app=desktop[/youtube]
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