David Banner
Mta2: Baptized in Dirty Water
After unleashing his Top 10 “Mississippi: The Album” debut this year, the Incredible Hulk’s namesake discovered he had enough material left over for another set. This whopping 18-song collection explores themes in which good people are thrown into environments that are anything but good. “Santa Claus don’t come if you don’t got dough,” drawls the gruff-throated rapper in “The Christmas Song,” about an unemployed father resorting to crime to provide for his family. Banner’s desperate lyrics are amplified by their delivery. Take the rapid-fire progression of “Like a Pimp,” or the choppiness of “Eternal,” or the deliberateness of “Ooh Ahh”–songs set to an ever-changing backdrop of blues-rock guitars, eerie organs and skipping breakbeats. And there’s probably more where that came from.
Take away: Take two
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Edited by Cara DiPasquale ([email protected]) and Kris Karnopp ([email protected])