Muamin Collective
World B. Free // 2009, Fare Trade Records
myspace.com/muamincollective
muamincollective.com
Yeah, gotta love World B. Free – representing Cleveland since 1997, Muamin Collective have been around. Lurking the underground scenes, playing a ton of great, diverse shows – they’re artists, and don’t give a damn about your genre limitations…from classic jazz trios to hardcore punk outfits – they’ll throw down with the best. With “World B. Free”, they’ve put together a rawer mix than their previous (and also memorable) release – “wHereMYpeoPLes@?!” …but it’s a lot more diverse, grabbing from a larger collection of samples and featuring a crowd of other talented hip-hop personalities in the Cleveland area. Aaron “aLiVe” and Josiah “Zion” MC this album, lyrically – it moves around a lot of topics, from empowerment to sexy talk, mixed into a soundscape filled with the standard funk and gospel takes as well as more futuristic sets of samples…blips and bleeps and Dr. Who styled knob turns. There’s kind of a dub-smoked, loose organic feel going on…not exactly rough, but definitely not the clean, overproduced schlock that is so common in hip-hop these days.
- Ian P.E.
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SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL RECORD STORES! All of these albums are available at: My Mind’s Eye, Music Saves, Bent Crayon, Blue Arrow Records and a few other local shops.
