My Album Of The Week for the week off April 28th-May 4th, 2014:
MaLLy - The Colors Of Black
01. Child Of America
02. Two World
03. Innervisions
04. City Of Fear (w/Rapper Hooks)
05. Hold My Tongue (w/Slug & Rapper Hooks)
06. Machine Gun
07. Not Never...
08. All Of My Life (Part 2) (w/K.Raydio)
09. Everything Else But Me
10. One Million
11. A Long Day
12. Crimson
13. Grow This Way
14. To The Future
15. The Colors Of Black
This is the third time that I've had a MaLLy record as my Album Of The Week. Back before I started writing up blog posts about my AOTW's I spent a week with MaLLy's breakout album The Last Great.... Then, back in November, I spent a week with Strange Rhythm, MaLLy's first collaboration with producer Last Word. Now here we are in early spring and MaLLy's & Last Word are back with their first full-length collaboration.
The Last Great... was produced by The Sundance Kid and found MaLLy in a happier place. He hadn't yet broke through here in the Twin Cities and, as such, that record found him enjoying the little things in life, staying upbeat among the day to day drudgery of being a hard working MC.
Strange Rhythm was only 8 songs, but it found MaLLy taking a different approach. Whether it was his new found success or Last Word's more aggressive beats, MaLLy was an angrier man. He spent most of that record celebrating his place in the the Twin Cities scene with a middle finger in the air. It was a victory lap of sorts, but MaLLy seemed hellbent on letting anybody who had ever doubted him know just how far he had come.
Which brings us to The Colors Of Black. As you can probably guess from the title, race plays a huge role in this record. Last Word's beats remain dark & angry, which feeds MaLLy's new sense of discontent. While he's no longer as consumed with sticking it to doubters, MaLLy's raps are now concerned with the experience of being a black man in America. The injustices that he sees either as a third party or through his personal experience leave him both angry & exhausted. With success, it seems, MaLLy no longer needs to find his peace of mind in the day to day successes of making songs and staying out of trouble. With those battles squarely in the rear view mirror, he's turned his attention to the problems facing society at large, and he's none too happy with the lack of answers.
The Colors Of Black is the logical extension of MaLLy the artist, but more importantly, it's the logical extension of MaLLy the man. It seems MaLLy's days of "windows down, radio up" songs have come to an end. In it's place we have a man fuming at the world around him.
If you're interested in checking out the album I sincerely suggest you head over to Fifth Element and pick up a hard copy of the record. It contains three bonus tracks ("Grow This Way," "To The Future," & "The Colors Of Black") that are unavailable on the download. Plus, it's an excuse to take a walk & support Fifth Element. That's a win/win.
