Saturday, June 28, 2008

Evolution Fight by CYNE









If you don't already know, here is a bit about CYNE





CYNE ("Cultivating Your New Experience") is an American indie hip-hop group
originating from Gainesville, Florida. Characterized with a warm and soulful
sound influenced by left-field hip-hop, rock, trip-hop and jazz, the group is
known for lyrics that range from party boasting to meditations on the philosophy
of Rousseau. The group consists of emcees Akin and Cise Star, and producers
Enoch and Speck, and are currently signed to City Centre Offices.
CYNE has
collaborated with artists from around the world, including Nujabes, whose solo
projects have featured Cise Star and Akin, and Four Tet, who produced several
remixes for and toured with them in 2005.
CYNE's 2005 release Evolution
Fight was named Album of the Week at Stylus Magazine for the week of August 29 –
September 3, 2005. In 2007, Cyne releases Grey Matter EP on their website to be
downloaded, free of charge




Plight About Now

Nice opener. Both emcees drop 16 bars that if you are not already familiar with CYNE give you an insight into what they are all about, both have liquidy smooth flows, (Akin sounding slightly more gravelly than Cise Star) and are evidently dope lyricists. The beat is a typical "intro beat", simple yet dope and complimentary to the emcees. It is evident from the intro that both Cise Star and Akin have skills on the mic and that they have good chemistry. You are left expecting a conscious, hard-hitting LP that could end up being slightly boring and repetitive or could turn out to be a breath of fresh air in what I would call a polluted Hip Hop Nation.
4/5

Soapbox

Ridiculous beat, flawless. Probably one of my favorite beats ever. Akin and Cise Star's smooth flows and liquidy lyrics suit it perfectly and both emcee and track compliment each other nicely. They spit more conscious lyrics commenting on how dumb society has become and how the "Evolution Fight" is difficult amongst such idiocy. Its one of those tracks I could have on repeat forever! Every verse is incredible

"Buildings fall, for race war we brawl
like a new civil war f*ck Bush and Gore
I got one shot, to make it to the top
Like a runaway slave you better call the cop
I must be tragic, tortured by cultural fabrics
and real to the listener this shit must be magic"

Could go on about this track for ages but I'll let y'all listen and form your own opinions.
5/5

Evolution Fight

Another great beat. One of the best tracks on the album. Akin and Cise talk about trying to succeed in the "Evolution Fight" and how hard it is to do so whilst keeping it real and not betraying your morals. Akin raps "This beat must be heaven sent" Word! A bit of autobiographal stuff.

"Aids in Africa the children are dieing,
Billion dollar budget, conquer Mars who's flying?"

Great track
4.5/5

Haze

The dopeness continues. Great "organic" beat with super smooth liquidy bass line. Again conscious lyrics about life and how certain people are let down by government prejudice and how badly America is run.
4.5/5

Rousseau

Another nice beat with a repetitive vocal sample. fuck knows what the title means, I think Rousseau was a philosopher or something not sure if this has a relevance to the track. Not feeling the chorus or Cise Star's flow on the 3rd verse he switches it up to some weird Eminem on Superman from The Eminem Show type business and it doesn't sound great in my opinion, but lyrically its still tight and Akin's opening verse is dope. More government hating.
4/5

Fuck America

Wasn't feeling this track at first, the emcees switch up their flows again and I prefer it when they are just flowing hard on a beat. The beat itself isn't great but after a few listens it grew on me. They use a prostitute as a metaphor to describe America. Describing how she is glamorized and dressed up to look great; silicon tits, contacts, nail polish but underneath what a mess she (America) is "took me to the car made me feel like a star, but I paid for some head and you gave me a hand job" is a metaphor for the false promises offered by society! Nice double meaning of f*ck America and good story telling. Definite grower (no homo) 4/5

Growing

As the title suggests this track is about growing up and again how hard it is in today’s society. Cise and Akin rap about turning to alcohol during hard times, growing up without a father and other hardships they faced. Deep without sounding cliché and gimmicky and real nice beat.
4/5

Rappin

Beautiful beat laced with a nice Piano loop. Love this beat. Only one verse long, Cise Star's flow on this one is on point! displaying his dope mic skills and great lyrically ability. He raps a bit about the crew and it’s generally just a self-promoting dope verse yet still conscious and interesting. "Diamond on the wrist watch, nah that's not hip hop" Word! Would get full marks if it was slightly longer and didn't have some random Mr.T skit at the end
4/5

Automaton

Different from anything on the album. Almost the kind of beat you'd expect on a Gym Class Hero's track but I like it! real catchy. An Automaton is a robot or a self-operating machine, the term is often used to describe a brainless follower (yes wiki) and that is what the track is about. I think that is why they have chosen this beat and some of the repetitive chorus' used throughout the track "cause clever ringtones define me, clever ringtones define me" clearly an ironic stab at modern popular culture. They joke about power lunches, excessive mobile phone use, lack of individuality and star bucks breaks which all in their opinion are trends far to often seen in society. Don't think they'd like a 9-5 in the city. Nice track and a change from a majority of the album so far.
4/5

Arrow of God

Automation ends with "Snap out of it" and instantly rolls in the Arrow of God beat. Almost as if they have snapped out of the commercial sounding Automaton track back into what they recognize as real this beat is much more typical of Cyne and another one of my favorites on the album. Akin and Cise Star talk about their religious beliefs and thoughts on the afterlife and the greater being. Incredible lyrics, very deep and I agree with alot of what they say.
4.5/5

Running Water

Another near flawless beat. Another challenger for the dopest track on the album! Cise drops a short verse about the hardships of life real dope meaningful stuff then Akin raps what in my opinion is probably the best verse on the album he tells a story of a youth wasting life and the hardships faced growing up, his lyricism is ridiculous. All round near perfect track
5/5

Up Above

Anyone familiar with Immortal Technique's Revolutionary Vol. 2 will instantly recognize this one, the beats exactly the same as "One (Remix)" apart from the drums, I prefer the beat on the tech LP. This is a solo track by Cise Star talking about his mother who passed away. Typical dope emotional track about a lost one. Nice track, lyrically tight but the beat for me is one of the weakest on the album but still.......
4/5

Deferred

Darkest beat on the album, nice drums. Another one i didn't feel so much at first but grew alot on me. The lyricism is incredible. Cise and Akin talk about dreams and subconscious thought. Not sure if there is a meaning to this one that goes over my head but whatever its dope as hell. "A bitch made approachin the mic with a switch blade, This day and age I rage against the skits made" Evidently, there are no skits on the LP at all, apart from the short Mr T thing at the end of "Rappin".
4.5/5

Moonlight

Can the final cut live up to the 13 previous dope tracks? hell yeah. Love this beat, liquidy smooth again with a haunting female vocal looped throughout almost like that in the intro to "Triumph" by Wu-Tang Clan, Cise and Akin flow effortlessly over it both displaying mic skills that should make them far more recognized than they are. Akin raps "my styles kind of different, it's not quite commercial yet beyond the ground vision" and that’s pretty much a fair summary of Cyne's style. On this track they talk about fake emcees and their own skills and why they do what they do. Dope ending to an outstanding album.
4.5/5

Summary of Beats

Enoch and Speck are real talented producers and lace the whole album with dope beats. They display great versatility behind the boards making all kinds of tracks. Most of the beats are smooth, jazzy, natural sounding but they show they are capable of making equally good commercial sounding tracks and hard hitting grimy hip-hop. As well as the 14 track's beats there are a few 30 second or so samples or other beats at the end of some tracks and they are all dope too. All in all consistently great production throughout.

Summary of the Emcees

Although not overly outstanding and in your face Cise and Akin hold down the whole LP. Not a single bad verse, not a single featuring MC, not a single moment where I wished there were other emcees gracing the dope beats provided by Enoch and Speck. Their chemistry is tight and they compliment each other perfectly they both write intelligently and come across as passionate and motivated to make good music. Oh and they both have sick flows. A producers dream.

Conclusion

From start to finish Evolution Fight is a great album, not a single skipable track it holds my attention from beginning to end, which albums rarely do. I recommend any hip hop fan should own this, I think some of the messages will go over the heads of some people and therefore they may interpret it as boring and samey but it definitely isn't. I'm not the type of person to throw out the "classic" label easily and I'm not doing so here but its damn close. Take away a few tracks and make a few tracks a bit longer then we might be talking a classic. I've listened to Evolution Fight on and off since I got it and I will continue to. Don't sleep

Grade = A


Few Sample Tracks
The whole album can be heard on youtube
-Clockwork

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