Title: Three Pronged Fork (EPs: Advice / Master Plan)
Artist: Mported Flows
Genre: Trip-Hop
Release Date: Sept 2013
License: CC BY-NC-ND
Label: blocSonic
Earlier this year blocSonic scored something of a coup with the release of The Impossebulls ‘Enemy Among Us’. The Impossebulls are group that evolved from Chuck D’s EnemyBoard. Originally they were what might have been considered the first virtual hip-hop collective, and were directed by C-Doc. Along with the release of ‘Enemy Among Us’ blocSonic released a compilation of tracks from The Impossebulls and several singles.
So, it was something of a surprise when C-Doc came back to blocSonic with a bunch of solo releases by Mported Flows — one of the emcees from The Impossebulls. Of course, blocSonic was more than happy to release these recordings on the netlabel world, after all, we need more classic-style hip-hop music in the Creative Commons community.
And it’s really great that they did release these recordings. There is a lot to admire about Mported Flows boom-bap stylings and words. He is quite adept at rhyming and flowing through a wide range of topics. Sometimes tracks are personal, some are critical, while others are observations of the world as it is.
When I reviewed Undogmatic’s ‘Undogmatism’ one of the tracks posed the question ‘What The Fuck Happened To Hip-Hop?’. Mported Flows answers the question quite adeptly on ‘Mic Drones’. I won’t quote the answer here, it’s one of the lines that really grabbed me when I listened to this release – so much so that it’s one of the sample tracks at the end of this review.
While that piece is a critical analysis of the state of Hip-Hop, Mported Flows has his lighter moments, such as on ‘That’s How It Goes’ which is the story of how a live show can go from being really excellent to really crap in a matter of a few minutes. The whole story is told with a slight nod and a laugh to the state of what trying to perform is really like. The kind of thing that most musicians and artists have experienced at times in their careers.
Mported Flows – Master Plan
Of course, as is the standard with many blocSonic releases there are two EP’s or maxi-singles that accompany ‘Three Pronged Fork’: ‘Advice’ and ‘Master Plan’. Both of the singles contain tracks featured on the length release, with alternate mixes, instrumental versions, and a few tracks that weren’t included on the main release.
Most notably, the ‘Advice’ single contains five different versions of the track ‘Master Plan’, which is one of my picks from this release. It’s one of those tracks that is personal and humorous, and an excellent groove. All five versions are worth checking out (even the Bonus Beat Break Dubb for it’s really funky groove).
I hope anyone that is a real fan of Hip-Hop in the netlabel / Creative Commons music scene is going to really enjoy these releases. Hopefully they will be popular enough that we may see more work from Mported Flows.
Mported Flows – Advice
Mported Flows: Three Pronged Fork
Free
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