To say I’ve heard
every rap album would be a huge exaggeration, and to say I’ve listened to every mixtape would be
an even greater falsity, but as a long time rap enthusiast, I’d would have to
say Pabst and Jazz is the best collection of songs I’ve come across.
Now before I
let loose the praise I should probably list a couple shortcomings of this Asher
Roth Mixtape.
·
There are about two or three songs that, no
matter how often I listen to them, I never develop a taste for, i.e. Insurance,
Golden Midas and Useless, a song with a well suited name.
·
The hooks are, I wouldn’t call weak but they
aren’t exactly audacious. They don’t
stand out and because of it, on your first few listens to the album the songs
sort of blend together and appear all the same.
·
This is probably my greatest peeve, Asher seems
to have a taste for featuring the worst possible rappers in every one of his
songs. Now I understand that it’s
financially beneficial to feature a large number of other rappers in your
mixtapes, and that when you’re still relatively underground it’s hard to
attract good rappers. Honestly though, I
would have appreciated more songs with just Asher because every other one was
ruined half way through by some misogynist, dry rapper blurting out some pathetic
excuse for lyrics.
Now on to the good stuff.
When I first listened to this mixtape, I was only moderately impressed. However, the songs kept popping back up on my
shuffle and pretty soon I found myself skipping forward to hear them. Pretty soon I stopped fighting it and just
start listening to the mixtape, all the way through, sometimes on shuffle
sometimes in the order Asher meant it to be.
·
The mixtape starts out with the song Pabst and Jazz,
which, as you can imagine, features a retro, jazzy rhythm. This is a quintessential example of how the
mixtape flows, it has a nice relaxed, Miles Davis feel, and if I were more of a
stoner it would undoubtedly be the best smoking music available.
·
The song after it, Choices, breaks up the
relaxed feeling and replaces it with smooth, bold rap.
·
The next notable song, although there are
several good ones in between, is Common Knowledge. To this day I’m still trying to understand
the lyrics to this song and I’m beginning to believe Asher just made up random
shit to confuse his fans. Regardless,
the flow is pristine.
·
Possibly my favorite song on the album, and the
first one I listened to extensively, is Ampersand. Ampersand, is different from anything song in
the album, it is more mellow and even borderline Melancholy. Give it along hard listen, it is a special
song.
·
The album raps up with Dope Shit. A long, almost tedious song critiquing the hip-hop
industry and its fans.
·
Honorable mentions are in store for Charlie
Chaplin, Running Away, In the Kitchen, More Cowbell and Get By.
I think there are a few things that made this Mixtape stand
out to me. First of all, the sound is
amazing. All the beats have a jazzy,
pre-digital Felly sort of feel. Also
they are unique. If you listen to rap
long enough you get tired of the same old themes and beats, and when a rapper
changes it up it is like a breath of fresh air.
Lastly, rarely even on cleaned up albums do I find more than two or
three songs that I really, really like. In
Pabst & Jazz there are thirteen.
Pabst & Jazz
is a special Mixtape in that it grows on you.
Instead of getting tired of the songs, possibly because of Asher’s
confusing, thickly layered lyrics, the more I listen to them the more I want
listen to them.
