Hello World

On receiving a copy of this album to review, I must admit that I had absolutely no clue who Xrabit and DMG$ were, and now that I’ve listened to their new record, I’m absolutely convinced that ignorance is indeed bliss. They’re made up of producer Xrabit and rappers Trak Bully and Coool Dundee [sic], and they also serve as a prime example of crass American rap music at the moment, sounding simultaneously like every single other exponent of this tear-inducingly repetitive genre.

The first track, ‘Damaged Goods’, kicks off with a big bassy intro, which will undoubtedly please many dance-floor inhabitants in clubs everywhere, and when the 80’s midi style keyboard comes in to a chorus of slack-jawed “hey heys”, it’s obvious that this record has tapped into the current trend of elongated final syllables and incessant repetition. The second song, ‘Ferris Bueller’, continues very much in this vein, as does the entire rest of the album, however few of the other tracks are quite as ostentatious, and as this is their first record on Big Dada, I would perhaps advise them to wait until they’re “so fucking cool” before they start offering their advice on how to attain this much lauded quality.

Third and fourth tracks, ‘Love of my Night’ and ‘Are We Friends’ offer nothing different, except perhaps even more crass lyrics, where it seems that they’re trying to take all the successful elements of rap music at the moment and combine it into a never-fails formula to get chart recognition, which they will undoubtedly receive. They’ll also produce tracks perfect for desperate DJ’s to wheel out when they need an alternative to Flo-Rida’s ‘Low’, as if it wasn’t bad enough on its own. Indeed, the next track, ‘My Stereo’, goes so far in its borrowing from Flo-Rida as to mention his favourite “Apple Bottom Jeans”, proof if any more was needed that Xrabit and DMG$ have merely tried to tap into the rap zeitgeist at the moment without putting any effort into originality of any sort.

Surprisingly, ‘Trak’s Promise’ and ‘Salt Shaker’ both start off with nice dark bassline intros and expansive synth melodies, but are spoiled again by the rap, which just doesn’t seem to suit the Nintendo sound of the tune. These tracks do make it clear though, that Xrabit and DMG$ are definitely benefiting from being on Big Dada’s roster at the same time as Wiley, Roots Manuva and Busdriver, as the production of this album is super slick, drawing from the most notable success of Wiley to produce a record of the utmost quality, it’s just a shame that DMG$ did not justify this support with raps even close to worth listening to.

Before withstanding the final few tracks of this album, we decided to listen to some real rap music just to remind ourselves what it actually sounded like. A Tribe Called Quest and Nas were obvious choices, and more than anything, they made us realise just how puerile Hello World really is. Rappers like Q-Tip and Nas seem to have an air of credibility about their music and message that Xrabit and DMG$ can’t even come close to. Somehow, despite this being their first release, they sound as crass as if they’d been pumping this out for years, and the lack of irony in their lyrics would imply that they actually take themselves seriously, yet the computer game soundtrack backing tracks would tend to tell a different story.

I’d love to say that when we went back and listened to the end of the album there was some sort of flash of brilliance, and that we finally got the point of it all, but we just didn’t. My overriding feeling with this album, which was not refuted by any of the last tracks, is that it is entirely pointless. I suppose it does have beats for people to dance to, and will no doubt go down well in many clubs, but that said, if a hip hop release didn’t have a beat to dance to, it would cease to be hip hop. It seems symptomatic of the genre that the only things Trak Bully and Coool Dundee deem worth rapping about are women and drugs, but who knows, with these difficult times and a looming recession, perhaps future releases will be less Apple Bottom and more Asda, or maybe just less crass and more creative.