Ain’t no Plan B.
Posted: May 18th, 2009 | Author: Choppa | Filed under: reviews | Tags: tanya morgan | 1 Comment »album review: tanya morgan | brooklynati
Interdependent Media, 2009
Rated: 3.5/5
It’s been almost a decade since Little Brother more or less singlehandedly flipped the script on hip hop imagery, and created a cult following for rapping about the everyday life of the unsigned emcee. Drawing from the more frank stylings of acts like Common and the Native Tongues collective, they embodied the IT worker who kicks raps in his closet on his day off and the beatmaker who has to balance taking time to hone his skills against having to sell mixtapes in the streets and still somehow keep the lights on. Apparently there are more quite a few of us (I’ll happily include myself in this category), and those who sympathize, because they spawned a whole subgenre of underground hip hop.
Into this fray, stepped Tanya Morgan, in the mid-2000’s. Initially an internet-facilitated partnership between Cincinnati, OH emcees Donwill and Ilyas and Brooklyn, NY producer/emcee Von Pea, TM generated a loyal following by smartly using the internet even as social networking and online promotional tactics were still in development. They made a name for themselves as fun, lighthearted rappers for the masses, with breezy beats and a playful sense of humor that made them relatable to a lot of hip hop fans put off by the materialistic fantasy of mainstream hip hop. This album, which follows up their Moonlighting LP on Loud Minority, now Interdependent, does not change that formula much, but it does refine it. The beats overall sound higher quality and better mixed, and the rappers have continued to develop their craft.
On the mic, there is nothing powerful about this trio. They all have relatively thin voices that are more Q-Tip than Busta Rhymes. As…Donwill…Ilyas…one of them alludes to, they are very hard to tell apart on the mic which can be a detriment, but it also speaks to a common high level of skill and a common purpose. Topically, they are fairly diverse. Their style is very calibrated toward keeping it real by their own definition, though, and they explore life through the lens of a late 20- or early 30-something working class man. A lot of the most expressive material is about rapping and the lifestyle it has created for them. On “Plan B”: Got a degree, got grown, got a home, got a deck/Got mad fulfillin’ work I ain’t go to school for…Saved up enough to give it a shot, make it or not/hit the job with 2 weeks notice and then I bounced. Unlike the reflective tone of this track, “Don’t U Holla” releases up pent up anger at shifty promoters that every rap group has to put up with on the way to the top. Other tracks are more about life in general, and mostly warm and endearing. “Never Enough” is probably the best of these tracks, playing with the idea of love. Then, there’s those inevitable boasting tracks, two standouts being the posse cut “Never 2ndary” and the off-the-cuff “All Eye Need”: Ayo hold up, just chill, don’t rush me man/While I grope the groupies and touch my fans. The beats match the light, fun nature of the rhymes
Beats on this album are, in general, fluid and jazzy, supplied largely by Von Pea (as The Beatmaker) and Brick Beats. The texture of the beats is very uniform, and while individually, most are good, they can run together and become monotonous as the album goes on. The few stylistic departures, like Aeon’s pensive “She’s Gone” are a welcome rest. The beats are decent, but I would not call them the standout feature of the album.
The final element that I wish to examine is the entertainment value of the album. As anyone who has listened to an overly earnest emcee’s snoozefest of an album can tell you, “regular guy” rap can go awry easily. Rappers can get so caught up in talking about being broke and making a point of being respectful of women that they lose sight of the fact that hip hop must be pleasurable to listen to, or it becomes work as opposed to entertainment. The fact that he is such a genius at entertaining is why Little Brother’s Phonte continues to set the standard for the genre he co-created. Thankfully, Tanya Morgan understands this, and keeps things fun and funny to listen to, on the mic as well as with the album’s skits. The concept of tying together an album with radio station break skits is not an original one, but they execute it well. Stories of an aging one-hit-wonder group performing their hit 15 times in a row, and a thrown-together benefit event for the failing local record store are pretty entertaining and add some replay value. There are also misses though, too, moments where they seem to be reaching for a funny idea and simply miss the mark. They’re not Phonte, but then, no one else is.
Overall, this is a good album. These guys are skilled, and just as important, genuinely likeable on the mic. They have a great ability to cast themselves as the underdogs everyone can pull for. It is not a perfect album, with some lack of variety and failed attempts at humor, but the good more than makes up for the bad. I definitely recommend you book a trip to Brooklynati.
Tanya Morgan | Plan B
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Tanya Morgan | Alleye Need
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