REVIEW: DAS EFX, Generation EFX (Elektra)
- Lang Whitaker
By its very nature, rap music is supposed to chafe you a little bit. As Chuck D once noted, "Rap music is CNN for black people", and as a result, rap music, once a happy-go-lucky boasting contest, has evolved into a hardcore reporting industry.
But if rap music is indeed "CNN", then DAS EFX would be "Style with Elsa Klench". As they have established on their three previous albums, EFX has an unmistakable vocal style that they mine for all it's worth. In the middle of about every fourth word, Skoob and Drayz insert a vocal tick that sounds like "iggity". For instance, "This is CNN", in DAS-speak, would be "This is C-iggitty-NN".
The vocal tick is at first grating, but it soon becomes second nature. Skoob and Drayz work extremely well together, with a flow that rivals the camaraderie between Run DMC. DAS EFX's voices sound smooth together, as the both have an intensity and concentration that shows.
The album appears to be sequenced with a purpose. The tracks rotate back and forth between hard-core and party jams, but for their part, DAS are rock steady. The songs on Generation EFX are never earth-shattering, production-wise, but appear to have been written with the radio in mind; each song has spoken verses with sing along choruses. The sugar coating of Generation EFX is a welcome change to the raw and rough recent past of rap.
The best song on the record is "Generation EFX", a song where Drayz and Skoob stake their claim as the voices of their generation. Adding vocals and production on the song is the legendary EPMD, and Erick and Parrish sound as tight as ever. The first single, "Rap Scholar" features Redman, another member of EPMD's extended stable of talent, and is built around a sample of The Brick's "Dazz".
Maybe Generation Effects isn't the most groundbreaking record, but it doesn't have to be. No one likes to have news shoved down their throats, and as Mary Poppins and DAS EFX have found, a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.
