The Alchemist's second solo record, a follow-up to the equally rock-solid 1st Infantry, is future-horror music, a cinematic soundtrack that crosses sci-fi pastiche with hardheaded ignorance of underground street rap. It's not an entirely novel concept-- the lead-off track sampling the theme from A Clockwork Orange makes that much obvious-- but it's exceptionally well-crafted in a way that eludes many of the artists who've fucked with this formula in the past. It helps that the Alchemist plays well to a lengthy guestlist of rappers with heavyweight street gravitas. As a rapper, Alc is still a pretty ignorable presence who can pull off some tracks as long as his lyrical honesty makes up for his poor vocal impression. But what makes this record work is Alchemist's balanced blend of creativity, craft, and atmosphere, a real underground rap record that works best when it plays to its strengths.
The beats are, of course, the main attraction. The claustrophobia, a mood so common to underground hardcore, is less about the dusty breakbeats of New York rap history; Alc's instrumentation is modern, smooth, and crisp, haunting less with texture than by strangled melody and the interplay of percussive beats with raspier rappers. "Lose Your Life", for example, is all swooping strings racing around bells that seem like the soundtrack to Dracula's mansion over minimal drum snaps. "That'll Work", meanwhile, is one of the year's best hip-hop tracks; over a bleeping sheet of computer sound, Juvenile and Three 6 Mafia spit inspired verses, accompanied by sudden jittery 16th-note bass stabs. The hook's eerie vocal samples are scratched less as a signifier of rap tradition than as disquieting affect. "On Sight" is another highlight; the Dogg Pound rap with classic West Coast lyrical dexterity over ominous bass burps and stuttered snares.
Eminem's return to form on the title track is a return to classic ignorant shock rap-- essentially, the kind of thing that made him worth hearing, even though it meant the eye-rolling homophobia of a "couple of fags stuffed in the back seat muzzled and gagged." A double-edged sword, less easily-ignorable coming from a full-grown established star. That said, his return to these more clever lyrical roots is so engaging that you have to wonder when this was actually recorded.
It's not all darkness and future-street noir, though; the listener gets some space to breathe, with the soulful Maxwell-assisted "Smile", featuring an impressive verse from Twista. Alchemist again walks a thin line between justifying his flaccid delivery with smart lyrics, and undercutting those lyrics with his paltry vocals. But it's the ominous lightning-and-thunder horror film moments where the record really takes shape: Rappers like Prodigy, Lil Fame, Jadakiss, Pusha T, and the Dogg Pound "shine," a word that feels wholly inappropriate for the grime-encrusted sonic background of the LP. The only real ignorable moment comes on the noodle-y, overlong, and boring "Therapy".
Chemical Warfare blends the grimy vibe of classic underground East Coast rap with the coast-to-coast who's who of rugged real rap, with highlights from New York lyrical heads (Fabolous) to brass knuckles bomb throwers (Lil Fame), down south legends (Juvenile) to the rugged West Coast street shit (Dogg Pound). Tying it all together is the Alchemist's allegiance to craft, but never at the expense of creativity; this kind of sci-fi cinema meets underground rap ruggedness has been done before, but not with this much agility. Chemical Warfare is a rap version of Speilberg's Minority Report; it draws upon a gritty underground past while embracing more modern craftsmanship, where new smooth edges are balanced by the felt-authenticity of its caliginous vision.
