Tadd Mullinix (aka Dabrye) is a multi-monikered, hip-hop-hungry, electro-leaning music producer. You know, like Scott Herren (aka Prefuse 73). But since Prefuse crashed hard with the guest-ridden debacle Surrounded By Silence last year, there's now room for a "next Prefuse," whether anybody wants one or not. When I saw Dabrye open for Prefuse back in 2003, most of his solo set was low-key and passable. Then, near the end, he started to lace his synth-heavy, moon-boot beats with bits and pieces of sampled raps, at which point the crowd went nuts (relatively), nodding their heads with a measured amount of intensity. Now, Dabrye is running with that energy, following up his two nice enough instrumental albums with Two/Three, which-- like Surrounded-- features many real-life hip-hop vocalists. And-- like Surrounded-- the outcome isn't nearly as ecstatic as one would hope.
The producer's singular Timbaland-meets-the flipside of Low rumble is more focused and intricate than ever, but his underground MC guests continually falter with convoluted rhymes that rust up Dabrye's menacing robot bounce. At the jump, when Lootpack alum Wildchild proclaims "It's time to take a stand...speak for those who don't have a chance to speak," he's ostensibly talking about (to?) the "youth," but his anti-flow quickly turns into a blithering mess when coupled with Dabrye's tricky undulations. Then there's Kadence, who spends 96 percent of his waking life practicing the "furrowed brow" in the mirror while reading No Logo and taking notes. Those notes eventually turn into raps like: "I'm gonna keep spittin' this shit until people internalize it/ It's all a matter of what you subjectively circumscribe to/ Envisioned through designer sunglasses you hide behind at night/ Signifier of a colonized mind." Signifier of a polite mind that's trying to hide closed eyes is more like it (i.e., dude is an instant drowzer). "Can a rapper be socio-philosophical and still affect y'all, is it possible?" he whines on "Encoded Flow", as if it's our fault he's not Chuck D. And then Beans, who is contractually obligated to appear on every indie-rap producer's "MC" record through 2017, shows up and does his little non-sequitur tinkle, purposely missing the bowl and thinking it's really cool. It's not.
Hope comes from the unexpected talents of Detroit's Guilty Simpson, a favorite of the late Jay Dee. Simpson isn't a prodigy and his verses are being graded on a curve against the rest of album's bullshit bunch, but still, there's a sense of release when he bounds onto "Special" with a sly gangster lean: "I'm tired of being humble/ From here on out I'm brash/ Hot dog with extra flash." As Dabrye's creepy crawler bass bubbles and scatters, the MC shows what Two/Three could be if the rappers were chosen based on entertainment value rather than how hard they're trying to save rap with big words. There's a natural cohesion between the producer's wicked slithers and brutish barbs like "You ever seen a hundred crooks on the grind that'll put it through your window when you look through your blinds?" Here's hoping Simpson and Dabrye get to hook up again in the future.
The record's last track, "Game Over", is another reason to believe in Dabrye's futuristic vision. The rhymes from Motown heavies Jay Dee and Phat Kat are generally inane ("Who keeps the fuse lit?/ New shit!") but the hometown bully vibe-- and the track's Dilla-inspired sparse drag-- is appealing. The beat, a grittier twist of Dabrye's own "This Is Where I Came In" from 2002's Instrmntl, could be the mind-tweaker's finest hip-hop moment yet, with Martian pulses, sinister chords and pitch-bending cartoon noises morphing into something funky and vicious. If he can stay away from wordy know-it-alls hell-bent on disrupting his groove, Dabrye has the potential to make an album as gripping as Prefuse's One Word Extinguisher. As for now, all we can do is wait on an instrumental version of Two/Three...and an enterprising fan to mash it with rhymes worthy of its diabolical creep.
