Music Review: "No Wising Up No Settling Down" by Sole
Last
October I got to review Sole’s “A Ruthless Criticism of Everything Existing”, and it was one of the biggest surprises in music in recent years for
me. While not everything there resonated with me, it was fresh, interesting and
what I enjoyed, I enjoyed the hell out of. The album barely left my player when
I heard about “No Wising Up, No Settling Down”, the follow up record, being
scheduled for release mere months after ‘ARCOEE’ dropped. This time I had
plenty of expectations! I’ve been listening to this album over and over, and I think it's about time to give it a review.
Much like what we witnessed on ARCOEE, “No Wising Up, No Settling Down” features songs in a more traditional hip-hop sound. Sole often raps here in a more conventional way, on beats that are without a doubt hip-hop ones, but this overall style choice never feels like pandering. And if you thought all those years of pushing his music in new directions made Sole unable to just get on a beat and kill it, then you’re dead wrong. The first single, “I Think I’m Emma Goldman” (another installment in Holland’s “I Think I’m...” series) produced by DJ Pain1 packs a mean punch, and even though I've heard it a hundred times by now, remains one of my favorites. Pain1's production is face-meltingly hot and Sole spitting lines like “They push us to the sidewalks, we take the streets/ We strike debt, we can bring things back to normal or do the opposite/ We can bicker over differences, Or we can fuck up shit/ Cause shit's fucked up and bullshit” really sets things off and just plain SOUNDS great. One might argue that this is putting complicated things in overly simplistic terms, but Sole gets plenty of space to go in-depth anyway, and the more direct rhetoric, along with the charisma he puts into it, fit his revolutionary sentiments perfectly. It's impossible to not get pumped when hearing the energy in this track. Sole makes a great duo with DJ Pain1, and I think both gentlemen are well aware of that, seeing how Pain1 produces the most tracks on this record. I don’t think politics are really completely separable from Sole, but this album is more personal than political. This doesn't mean you won't be hearing about prison industrial complexes and bridges of Fallujah, but it means Holland himself plays a more central role on the record and speaks about himself more often. There are many examples for that, but two, very different, yet equally great songs worth mentioning are “My Veganism” and “People Piss Me Off”. I’ll be honest with you: I never thought I’d be a fan of a song titled “My Veganism”. Not because I am violently passionate about meat or anything, but because basing a song on this could sound terribly preachy real easy. I really like how that's not the case and all and how sincere it sounds. This isn’t a brochure for veganism, this is a personal take on it. Cars & Trains’ Tom Filepp’s voice is something I greatly enjoy, and he makes a great addition to this song, providing both the hook and the music. “This is what we used to call... dropping bombs” says the voice at the beginning of “People Piss Me Off” and sure enough, bombs get dropped. I love this song. It’s certainly not completely serious, but it’s rant-ish nature makes it sound vicious over Loden’s fantastic beat. Everybody gets put in their place, from people whining about Facebook in their Facebook updates, to hip-hop fans only listening to “that intelligent hip-hop”, cops, and rappers blaming the labels for their own shortcomings. Emcees nearly two decades past their relevance get told that “this is the internet era. A day feels like a week, a week feels like a year, and the ‘90s might as well be the 1800s...”. On the subject of weed activism Sole says “Sure, weed legalization is cool, but don’t be disingenuous and say it’s about the effect the war on drugs has on people of color. Ninety five percent of y’all just like weed...” and he finishes it in a way that’s both amusing and delivered in an ice-cold and absolutely stellar fashion. This whole track just puts a big grin on my face. Other standouts include “Insurgent Rap”, with a beat by DJ Pain1 again and plenty of quotables to compliment it, the titular “No Wising Up, No Settling Down” and “Genealogy of Giving a Fuck” (beat by the Denver producer Snubluck – I never heard of him before, but I already like him). I have to mention “Prole”, which is easily one of my favorite songs on the record, with Sole ripping the whole track and the whole thing coming to a surprisingly funky culmination with a killer switch-up in the beat. The great thing is that there really aren’t any songs here that I’d find myself wanting to skip. Even when I’m not really feeling a particular track, I’ll usually just let it play out, because of an interesting element in the beat or a great lyric. And Sole is pretty much always on point here. He's always been a very good writer and had a very good voice, but all the different flows and styles he employs on "No Wising Up..." really help show his range as an MC, and it's impressive. There’s also something to be said about the sequencing of this record. Those that still like to listen to an album as a whole, instead of just cherry picking for favorite mp3s, will be happy to hear that the songs on NWUNSD aren’t just thrown together in a random order. The record starts strong, builds toward the powerful middle section, gets a few peaceful moments in between and doesn’t fizz out anywhere along the way to its end. It looks easy enough on paper, but upon hearing it in it’s entirety, you will realize that the solid sequencing adds a lot to NWUNSD being so damn good. If you didn’t yet notice, I am a big fan of this album. It’s labeled a sequel to ARCOEE and it’s one of the rare instances where I enjoyed the sequel much, much more than the first one. This is a veteran of the scene putting out what's probably some the best material of his career, and definitely one of 2013's best releases. Like I mentioned at the beginning, I had expectations for this and it exceeded them spectacularly, and I can’t really remember the last time a record did that. Get it! "NO WISING UP, NO SETTLING DOWN" comes out on May 1st, but you can listen to the whole thing today if you pre-order it from Sole's official website. Other stuff you might enjoy: - "A Ruthless Criticism of Everything Existing" Review - TM Interviews (TMI): An interview with Sole 
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