Kevlaar 7 & Woodenchainz – Sophisticated Movement Album Review

An immediate return by Kevlaar 7, who just released the opus Die Ageless (http://lavoerevolt.blogspot.com/2012/05/kevlaar-7-die-ageless-review.html) in May, continues the legacy of Detroit’s Wisemen with Sophisticated Movement, an effort of the toughest Blues you can find.  Sophisticated Movement is a classically cohesive, short LP that is beautified by the wonderfully crafted worried notes of Woodenchainz and verses from one of the most poetic hardcore MCs in Hip Hop today.

The sophistication of this album is its focus on Kevlaar’s greatest MC gifts- that poetic engagement of detailing our oppression, viciously brutal battle rhyme phrasing and insightful love for our people.  Many greats have these sentiments but cannot transform them to acetate as easily as Kevlaar.  The movement is in the track by track surge of such clear anthemic material that is bedded lovely by Woodenchainz’s sample choices and arranging along with great Boom Bap programming.

Thus S.M. is a duet where the best addictions of the former feed the addictions of the latter promoting a new Wiseman top for the junkie listener.  From the title track with the horns punctuated by snapping high hats and sandy snares of which become a defining element to Woodenchainz’ superior work here.  Kevlaar then introduces the progression of the movement as that dream for the people isn’t being waited on but grabbed for.  With “Detroit’s Agony,” a brutally wailing track with bass drums punctuating throughout Kevlaar is wildly pissed spitting, “Eastern promises/ felonious for commerce, students stroll the school and made them come out their Converse/ converse with my daughter while I sip a Corona…resurrect dead presidents/ impressed at the decadence/ celebrate no evidence…,” as he is on “Ask About Me,” where funk stabs, clipped lady soul wails and a reverberating guitar lick let Bronze and Styles P grind rugged militancy with Kevlaar leading with “Ask about explicit life like writtens laid back between reality and carnivorous intentions/ unshaven heathen spitting live on location scraping bones with a blade with the turntables blazing…Godly heathen shoppin’ out in Sweden/ autograph seekers seeking/ validation, vintage dreaming…hell is empty and this is where all the devils live in…”

There is also the beautifully Womack’d soul of “At Last” to the roaring vocals spilling on the incredibly sharp drums on “Life’s on the Clock,” Woodenchainz promotes Kevlaar’s lyricism just as much as he zombies the listener with the cacophony of massive snare tricks he employs.  The features are all well done (from Wisemen's June Mega & Illah Dayz to Willie Waze, S-Class Sonny & Shake C) with the future spotlight clearly being on Rain The Quiet Storm with a dynamic verse on “Life’s on the Clock.”

 Kevlaar is an MC with tons of ideas, themes and manners to convey the struggle with the answers.  On Die Ageless, he gives a deep portrait to offer himself while here on S.M., his thematic concepts are deliberately narrowed but exploration is broadened yielding beautiful line after line.  On S.M., his annunciation and lyrically dexterous phrasing continue to excel offering a greater mastery of the track.  Ultimately, the entire LP is quotable because there is his obsession with saying all, even “Fuck You,” in the illest way.  That greatest peak is on “Why” where Kevlaar’s timing is supreme from acapella to beat drop building and destroying vividly with, “Brush my life on the canvas/touching the Earth cuz life’s so candid/ inundated both  will never understand it/ perfect planning just off the papel/ burn a plantation question everything…” With Sophisticated Movement, Woodenchainz emerges as one of the new producers to immediately listen to whilst Kevlaar 7 continues to be one of the great lyricists of this era.  

-Sunez
http://kevlaar7.bandcamp.com/album/sophisticated-movement