Artist: OddiseeTitle: Instrumental Mixtape Vol. 2Rating: 3 1/2 StarsReviewed by: Sidik Fofana
Look yonder across this new world as youngsters are bumping the sweet noise pollution. If Kodak was a time machine, one would picture a brother like Oddisee fifty years ago with a trumpet in his grasp, outshining ni**as off the bandstand with complex flutterings and seductive ass bebop melodies. But as a citizen of the millenia, Oddisee is a new breed of musician and his offering to the butterfly effect of black music is his latest-Instrumental Mixtape Vol.2 (Halftooth Records).
Ahmir makes beats. This is a very simple declaration but if you consider that he supplies the very thing that makes an MC’s cortex light up with brilliant new angels of thought, then you can rightfully say that Ahmir makes blood. Oddisee’s makes you aware of why cats out there are in their basement doing this Hip-Hop thing strictly for the love, perfectly content if their contribution to boom bap never raises a red penny.
On this 24 track painting palette, the stories have already been stroked. Oddisee is a composer who can conduct without a master of ceremony. The track “Brother” evokes the image of those guys chatting and laughing right before the start of Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On. On the track, “Love At First Sight,” you’re posted up by a fire hydrant as a fine nightingale walks by and makes your day. The beat, “Hottness” is a Neptunes meets Nu-Soul vibe chill enough even to make Pharrell want to skateboard to the nearest coffee house.
Real talk, just like Hip-Hop’s thirty-somethings once believed that Pete Rock and DJ Premier could do no wrong, Oddisee is a superhero of this new generation of beatsmiths. His portfolio includes gems he crafted for Talib Kweli, Little Brother, J-Live, Wordsworth, Freddie Foxx, and others. Instrumental Mixtape Vol.2 is an output from a seasoned tradesman who knows that a picture is worth a thousand words and that a good tune can inspire just as many.