In less than two years, G-Side have gone from being one of the most slept-on rap groups around, to well, kind of taken for granted. That will happen when hip-hop's having its RSS-obsessed, gimmick-happy, bloggy moment, and ST and Clova's concerns are consistency and ever so slightly widening the lane they've carved out for themselves. So, on iSLAND-- the equally estimable follow-up to January's THE ONE... COHESIVE-- they're still indefatigably grinding, and just as geeked-up on the fact that people write about them in magazines and on blogs.
But there's something darker creeping into their music here, confounding the occasional misreading of COHESIVE's glowing, cathartic hip-hop as "escapist" or head-in-the-clouds. Forever right there in the background is their keen awareness that, when it comes down to it, they ain't all that important to this rap shit. That's why every interview is a huge deal to them. There's also their past, rife with tragedy and loss-- bouncing around in foster homes, family members lost to cancer and addiction-- which they tastefully reveal only in snippets.
These guys have something to legitimately want to escape, but they also have enough experience to know that things don't always get better-- so they remain sneering, smart products of their environment, always prepared for the worst. On "Gettin' It", a team-up with Stalley-- a similarly minded member of rap's scrappy, new sincerity-- ST admits, "I've been havin' nightmares of being broke at 30." A baggy Tame Impala sample suggests a world bigger than regional hip-hop, but the rigid, glitching drums slap those dreams back down to the earth.
G-Side are not cynics, though. They can't help but exude positivity, and the production here, from in-house crew the Block Beataz, as well as Parallel Thought (best known for work with undergrounders like Tame One and C-Rayz Walz), remains typically vibrant. Supported by background singers PH and Joi Tiffany throughout, there's quiet storm R&B on the title track, Ernie Isley-like guitar on "Atmosphere", and a Bacharach-gone-rap sound on "Stay-cation". It sounds like hip-hop for the over-30 crowd, which fits G-Side's hard-working, Bill Cosby-meets-From Niggas to Gods, "boot-straps"-tinged individuality.
Wisely, the Huntsville up-and-comers also graft their concerns onto something much larger than their hometown and internet fanbase. They're about to pop off, but they're not quite there, which is a fitting analogue for the United States, which seems to be slowly crawling out from under a recession but shit, man, not soon enough. On "Rising Sun" from 2009's Huntsville International, they boasted that they were "W2 boys"-- regular guys with legal hustles-- but now, they refer to taxes as "that Uncle Sam scam."
G-Side are part of the wizened, frustrated working class that can't help but feel like the government's nothing but a money-laundering system for the super rich and therefore, not to be trusted. "Rabbits", iSLAND's finest track, thanks to a Goodie Mob-esque hook and a beyond dusted moan of synths and rattling percussion, is a cruel vision of the world as a place where you hunt or become the hunted. "16 Shots" features a song-stealing verse from Bentley that doesn't see the difference between the U.S.-sanctioned murder of Gaddafi and the assassinations of Malcolm and Martin.
Appropriately, this the album where Clova, usually considered the more tormented, lesser of the two MCs, finally gets to shine. Here his voice, which communicates seething disgust with the world, is also so distinct-- a lisping whisper of a rasp-- that it feels painfully sincere, and commands iSLAND. He begins "Our Thing" by confessing, "I hate relationships, never put my heart up in it," and ends the song with a uncomfortably calm monologue that invokes the recession while acknowledging the double bind that dedicated hard work is alienating: "Niggas ain't seeing their kids, niggas ain't with they wives…/ This shit ain't all sweet man, I don't know what the fuck these niggas done told y'all./ We're just out here surviving."
No matter that, just a few songs before, G-Side wrapped up a mid-album, warm-hearted suite of R&B raps with a love song dedicated to hard work called "Luv 2 Hustle". It's not that grinding is what they want to be doing, it's just that, right now, there doesn't seem to be another option.
