Pabst & Jazz

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.

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