Horror-core. Where B-Movie schlock meets hardcore rap. After all, the majority of gangsta rap is little more than a fictional thriller, so why not take it the full hog ?
First up is Flatlinerz and you can't help but feel that the horror- core tag is nothing but a gimmick for them. What you get for your admission fee is an average East Coast rap sound (Lords of the Underground without the skills or humour) with a touch of horror in the lyrics.
They start off pretty well but after the first few tracks you realise they've said all they're going to say and the listener is left wondering if the album is ever going to end. Not the nightmare effect they were aiming for I fear.
Only the last couple of tracks pick things up a little, with the finishing "Live Evil" finally extending the horror concept into the music with some excellent creepy choral sampling, but by then it's too late.
The Gravediggaz meanwhile, know *exactly* what they're doing.
A rap 'super-group' (Producer Prince Paul best known for his work with De La Soul describes them as 'Tommy Boy Rejects'), the concept behind the Gravediggaz is the task of waking the world's 'mental dead' and on the evidence of this album, to have a fun time doing it. You see, the Gravediggaz know that one of the most important things about B-movie horror is not just the chills but the humour - check Sam Raimi's "Evil Dead" for evidence.
So, we get some incredible beats from Prince Paul aided by Wu-Tang Clan's Rza, which touch frequently on something new and fresh. Pantomime horror vocals and samples come in and out of the songs making you smile, but the whole thing is nailed down by a fluid funk-soul backing and frequent moments where everytbody knuckles down and gets tough - reminding you much of this is no fantasy. The crack-heads in "Defective Trippin" and the victims in "1-800 Suicide" are real people underneath the black humour and dark images.
The rapping is superb throughout, the rappers becoming totally immersed in their Gravediggaz alter-egos as grinning, boasting, malevolent phantoms. It's alternately funny and scary and a breath of fresh air from gangsta's gritty seriousness and 'realism'. If Chuck D is CNN, then the Gravediggaz are the late night Wes Craven horror-flick.
- Martin Bate
