Dume41
What happened to conscious hip hop? When was the last time you heard an emcee spend time on a record encouraging the economic, political and intellectual growth of the people? Producer and emcee Dume41 misses it too, which is why he couldn’t turn his back on the true school boom bap aesthetic he grew up on. Enlisting the help of the “Holy Ghost of Northwest Hip Hop” Specs One for two energetic appearances on the microphone and Seattle’s own deck masters, The Elefaders for all turntable work, Dume releases his thirteen track opus, “God Save The King.”
Production is handled by Dume himself, with three tracks produced by long time collaborator RokSoulo.
In keeping the guest appearances to a minimum, Dume leaves room to write coherent songs that consistently deliver topical content. The album, stocked full of grime , chopped phrases and moving melodies, is available now.
- Luminous
- Half-Life (The Orange Box)
- Aesthetics f/Specs One
- Lotus Throne
- The Restaurant
- Pulamic
- Puladeck
- Built Eternal
- Overpros f/Severe
- Drinks in Medina
- Geminon (The Clever Pair) f/Specs One
- Sith Science (Sub Zero Transmogrification)
- Universal Savior
Produced by Dume41 except Luminous, Half Life, and Lotus Throne produced by Rok Soul0.
Recorded, mixed and mastered by Dume41 at Seattle’s Hip Hop mastering studio The Legion of Dume
Press
…he strings together vivid descriptions to create a verbal tableau of picturesque scenes for listeners. The way he interweaves religious imagery and socially conscious themes also resonates with the Staten Island crew, even if his lack of brutal content does not.
The beats go in an entirely different direction, evincing a love for the pre-Wu-Tang era East Coast underground. The album is full of breezy samples – some light acoustic guitar finger-picking (“The Restaurant”), a lazy piano loop (“Half-Life (The Orange Box)”), airy horns and finger snaps (“Built Eternal”). The atmosphere is not at all light-hearted, as this description might indicate, which is a credit to Dume’s ability as a producer to create a particular mood with his beats, but it is also due to his solemn presence as an emcee over this music. Dume is quite talented at delivering moral admonitions couched within quasi-narratives of personal struggle, as he does on the aforementioned “Half-Life,”…- Rap Reviews