B.C.- TIME PIECES PART 2: SURFACE PERIPHERAL RECORDS
“I thought I had returned home, but it seemed I am destined to be tossed back and forth at the whim of time. Falling asleep in Pop World, but all too often, waking up here with the cries of the surface dwellers and the sounds of sirens still in my head. Which one is the dream? I’ve recorded every voice on each side of my slumber in hopes someone will heed them. I can’t tell if living in the cause or the aftermath is more maddening or, just the deaf ears in between. But if you’ll listen, I’ll tell you the story of the surface…”
These lines permeate the insert of B.C.’s second solo release Time Pieces Part 2: Surface. It’s a short glimpse into the 11 track continuation of the Time Pieces series. While rappers are trying to make the most hardcore gangsta music, the catchiest commercial music, or the deepest or most different underground music, B.C. is simply trying to be himself. Time Pieces Part 2: Surface is like a throwback to the early 1990’s only in the sense that at the time, hip-hop had not become the divided and over-classified genre of music it is now. Had “TP: P2” been released then, it would have been called a hip-hop album, with no unnecessary sub-classification.
Time Pieces Part 2: Surface as an album reflects and captures the essence of what hip-hop was and always will be: a voice for the World’s inner city. Just like rap’s pioneers, B.C. maintains a perfect balance between flexing lyrical muscle and addressing both the good and the bad of his respective topics. But there’s still more! B.C. does sample heavy music, dense music, with a lot of change ups in the details. An exhibition of this emcee just showcasing his enormous amounts of skills is “G Thang”, which really lives off of different flows and some change ups in the beats. Let us not forget that B.C. is a poet too, and makes that clear throughout the album through both word and sound, his obvious expertise with the former often mirrored by a subtle and intelligent touch when manipulating the latter. The presentation of B.C. as a lyricist ranges from being as abstract as Saul Williams (an artist he collaborated with on Part 1) to as direct as KRS ONE.
Not only does it not disappoint, Time Pieces Part 2, also manages to surprise with many twists on the abstract experimentalist’s template of analogue mayhem and lyrical filibustering. Given the depth of B.C’s discussion on relevant material, the heavy weight of the beats supplied by the likes of Miles Harris, Lazy, Aetoms and mostly Mudd Buddha, and the quality recording and mastering of the product; the total package presents an ambitious attempt to expand underground hip-hop while at the same time recapturing the more conscious aspects of the art. If you sleep you’ll miss the sickness of cuts like “ Bomb Shelter”, “Riot”, “Time to Make the Donuts” and the personal “I Prefer Whiskey”. Overall, the beats are awesome and the rhymes are off the chain. But this review cannot do justice to the emotion B.C. and the various producers conjure at the more gripping parts. Any talented emcee can flow, but it takes a whole other kind of talent to do it like B.C. Please support B.C. by checking out http://thepopworld.com/. Bless C73
