Review – Fiti Futuristic ‘… All In A Day’s Work’

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The best thing about Fiti Futuristic is his ability and commitment to a coherent message within each song, and in fact, to an overarching theme throughout the album. As it states on the back of the CD: “Deep within the heart of your city an evil lurks/Crooked Politicians, Professional Criminals, and Bling-Bling Rappers roam the streets.” These are some of the core themes Fiti explores on this excellently executed and produced effort. As also stated on the packaging: “The citizens are looking for a hero” and Fiti does not falter on delivering what he promises. What makes this album so good is what usually makes any album good: a respect for a history of the genre while stretching its boundaries and defining new limits of expression within it. It’s a rather well balanced mix of old-school hip-hop routines and a mature attack on the disjointed, fragmented beat-patterns and samples that have recently been explored but rarely this well. What makes it work is that the disjointed concoction of beats and samples work to accent the traditional themes of societal corruption and his contemporary’s musical fakery, as well as Fiti’s solid, on-time delivery. The two elements enhance each other and so come off as a coherent statement not often heard these days in the contemporary world of over-hyped pop-rap. And while the music strives for new expressions (let us thank DJ Type A), it still never leaves the solid beat. The music seems to play around it, play within it, and while deconstructing the terms of old-school sensibility, it never-the-less draws all of its strength from a deep respect for the music’s very history. Much should also be said of Fiti’s talents alone. What’s so refreshing is that he does not fear to commit himself to the beat when he raps, and very rarely does he drop a false rhyme out of convenience instead of digging deep to keep his lyrics true to the theme of his exposition. He seems to take delight in pushing his lyrics through the beats, and like the sign of any good rapper, he takes time to hold back and sometimes jump ahead of the beat. He’s able to create a sense of tension when the song demands, and then let go again and rejoin the groove riding beneath him. Fiti Futuristic, and DJ Type A, certainly have talents, and they deserve a wide audience (wider than the Christian-rap demographic that they’re currently associated with). Hopefully if he finds a more secular crowd they wont corrupt him, as usual, and make Fiti forget his words: “How bright does the platinum on your neck glow / how much does the money in your bank roll / what speed do you cruise on when you ride slow / how smart do you need to be to have flow / spit some knowledge bro when you go to cut a single / why spend my money on hearing your ego tingle / it ain’t a game to accrue the most points / it’s pathetic, that most people live synthetic.” Let’s hope that with Fiti’s obvious love of musical authenticity and his strong personal convictions, as he says himself, in the end he will still hold himself to a “to higher brand of conduct.”

Release Date: September 10, 2002

Label: Grapetree Records

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Tracklisting
1. DJ Type A (Intro)
2. End Of The World
3. Care To Tango
4. UM
5. Master Plan
6. Get ’em A Gig Phone (Skit)
7. Unemployment
8. Fiti Futuristic Theme Song
9. Earth Is Overrated 3
10. There For Me
11. Baup-Baup
12. Positive
13. Bargirl Interlude
14. Ned Flanders

Steven
Steven
Steven is Christian Hip-Hop's Wizard of Oz, breaking more unsigned talent than anyone you know.
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