"Your favorite group that wasn't even a group to start!" Murs makes this claim on "Protagonists", the leadoff track from his collaboration with fellow indie MC all-star Slug, Felt 3: A Tribute to Rosie Perez, and despite the humility this is more indie hip-hop supergroup than mere side project. With Aesop Rock on production, Felt becomes a triangulation that canvasses almost the entirety of U.S. undie rap in terms of geography and affiliation. So why is this thing kind of a bummer?
It's got nothing to do with Aesop, whose beats go a long way toward invigorating Rosie Perez. Far from the gnarled and difficult production one might expect from a Def Jukie, Rosie Perez shows a good amount of sonic diversity while never straying too far from the sort of chunky, drum-knocking beats Murs and Slug typically rhyme over. You can't accuse Rosie Perez of being hookless: Even if Slug and Murs can't quite nail the double-time flows on "Felt Chewed Up", it's still nice to hear these guys do their own cheerleading over some pretty awesome turntable work, and the working man blues of "Like You" has an agile, back and forth vigor. The 21-deep tracklist is certainly foreboding, but the skit/interlude/instrumentals "Kevin Spacey" and "Get Cake" have a guileless charm that justify their inclusion.
But you remember that Atmosphere album You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having? OK, good-- now imagine the exact opposite sentiment. I have no idea what put these guys in such a sourpuss mode, but the celebratory "we the best" boasting of "Protagonists" proves to be a red herring instead of a mood setter. The rest of the way we get to hear Murs and Slug swap out the kickin' back at the BBQ vibe of their previous releases and go off on so many archetypes/strawmen you wonder if they even think they have fans. Either way, it gets to be awfully oppressive over the span of Rosie Perez's hourlong runtime for anyone other than the most insatiable consumers of complaint rap.
Hipsters, critics, "internet rappers," rappers who rap about violence ("Deathmurdermayhem") all get dealt with, but in a manner so vague that their dismissals become toothless. Come on, I'm wearing a cardigan as I type this review-- work with it! Instead they save specificity for tracks boasting the concerned but condescending attitudes towards women I expect from a Taking Back Sunday album. It's one thing to lack sympathy, but Slug and Murs crucially forgo empathy too often, and their subjects come off like set pieces rather than real people-- oddly enough, the fantastical fairy tale character portrait of "Henrietta Longbottom" comes off like the most intensely written song on the whole thing.
Even if you can get past the unctuous self-satisfaction, the lyrics are as lame to hear as they are to read. "Bass for Your Truck" almost entirely negates the draw of its speaker-blast beat by dogging girls who "date losers 'cause it makes [them] feel superior." Though I suppose I'll take that over Slug's insanely obtuse diss that "the truth is just an excuse that you use to polish up a pair of selfish shoes." Meanwhile, "Permanent Standby" is something along the lines of "Welcome to the Jungle" in its cautionary rendering of two women trying to make it in the big city, but the whole thing feels preordained-- both get caught up in drugs, prostitution, and the like, with only a lyric about "dancing to some dubstep" standing out as something other than stock characterization.
I dunno, isn't Felt supposed to be a way for Slug and Murs to blow off steam in contrast to their more intense solo albums? Even the old-school party rhymes of "Revisiting the Styleetron" are rapped with "I am being very, very serious" intonation, and ultimately denying any chance it has at being played at an actual party. At the end of "Paul Reubens", it's announced Felt 4 will be a tribute to Heidi Fleiss, so I can only hope it augurs a record where the guys are more inclined to, um, enjoy themselves.
