The Gigantics
Die Already
(Camobear)
It's now official: 2008 is the most important hiphop year for the local scene since 2005, the year that triggered the new wave of rap and beats. Three camps or schools of hiphop production have dropped first-rate CDs this year: Mass Line put out Common Market's epic Tobacco Road, Jake One (representing the trio of veteran producers that includes Vitamin D and Bean One) produced the world-class White Van Music, and lastly, the Oldominion agglomeration have released the Gigantic's galactic Die Already.
The hour-and-six-minutes-long album is huge in the number of rappers it contains—no less than 53 headz, the most notable of which are Aesop Rock, Murs, Mr. Lif, Vursatyl, JFK, Onry Ozzborn, Grayskul, Macklemore, Vitamin D, and Silent Lambs. The CD also has a huge sound—big beats, operatic levels of intensity, and multiple mazes of melodies, rhythms, and harmonic structures.
Die Already owes its life and meaning to Onry Ozzborn, who programmed all the beats and activated all his connections in the local and national underground for the album. (Though Onry claims that the record was produced by "the five-man production team [that he] assembled," in truth this amazing team is just him.)
Die Already does not seduce the listener but impresses him/her with something that can only be described as a hiphop sublime. "This is NOT a COMPILATION!! It is a strategic massacre upon all who create terrible music," declares Onry. Ultimately, the Gigantics are not a thing or a person but a massive attack of tracks, a battle zone of rhymes, a swarm of breaks and beats.
Onry Ozzborn and the Gigantics perform Sun Oct 12, El Corazón, 8 pm, $15 adv/$17 DOS, all ages. With Ill Bill, Sean Price, Grayskul, DJ Redheadone.
