Situation [Import]

This whole album is excellent with the exception of "Dang". The only song I don't like. I saw Buck 65 live at the Middle East in November and was much better than i thought he would be. One of the best and most original hip hop albums I've heard in the past few years. Everyone needs to hear this.

Buck 65 doesn't disappoint. The level of thought and and creativity that he puts into each word and beat is unparalleled. It is always refreshing to hear real artist creating real art. Support real hip-hop.

Political pundits for years could never imagine that the Canadian dollar would ever come close to be as strong as the American dollar. However, perhaps those political pundits never considered what a Buck 65 from Canada is truly capable of in there analysis.

Although Buck 65 cannot be exchanged for any goods or services, the weight of what a Buck 65 can get you is simply amazing. With Buck 65, you are guaranteed a solidly produced album that both thinks outside of the box musically and pummels the listener, regardless of geographic locale, with an amazingly intense and complete sound.

Richard Terfry is the man better known as Buck 65 and this highly skilled Canadian has crafted himself a niche in a musical scene that perhaps is not one of the first images that comes to mind when thinking of Canada. With a hip hop sound that is highlighted largely thanks to his mastering of quirky electric sounds with paired nicely with his own unique vocal sounds.

Though typically I tend to shy away from albums that might be classified as being "hip-hop", what Buck 65 has been able to create on his most recent album Situation is a musically impressive album that truly demonstrates the genius and skill that Buck 65 puts into the electronic sounds that he calls his own. The album is perhaps a fine fusion of several different genres of music only held together by the common glue that Buck 65 makes the sound truly that of only Buck 65.

The listener is quickly brought into the music of Buck 65 on the first track aptly named Intro . Serving as an intense welcome mat to the rest of the album, this track has some interesting scratches incorporated into the track that almost maintains a sort of background television sound reminiscent to something you would hear in the back of a Cops episode while the police are out front questioning the drunk du jour.

Lipstick mixes some heavy percussive beats to the fast paced rapping vocals of Buck 65. This track is one of the best on the album because the percussive undertones serve almost as the metronome for the rest of the sound on the album.

A flashback to a different era can be heard on the track Cop Shades . If the listener takes a good hard listen to this track and does not notice the resemblance to Cake's music you must not be listening to the right track. This track is uniquely different than the others on the album because it mixes an intermittent slow down of the music to have a solely vocal part added to the track.

The Outskirts has an almost Spanish guitar flair that plays softly in the background while Buck 65 works his musical magic. The soft guitar backing flows smoothly throughout the track while the beats of Buck 65 truly maintains on the front stage of the track. Although the tempo of this track is perhaps a tad softer and slower than some of the other tracks on the album, this variation solidifies that indeed Buck 65 is capable of producing quality sounds based upon almost any genre's backing.

Track listing:

1. Intro
2. 1957
3. Dang
4. Lipstick
5. Shutter Buggin'
6. Spread 'Em
7. Ho-Boys
8. Way Back When
9. Cop Shades
10. The Beatific
11. Mr. Nobody
12. The Rebel
13. Benz.
14. Heatwave
15. The Outskirts
16. White Bread

Though the hip hop culture at times carries a negative connotation along with it, perhaps this album is the means to break down any musical barriers that exist and will prove to listeners that music can still be hip hop and not necessarily hold true the gangster mentality that has tarnished hip hops good name. Thanks to Buck 65 and his album Situation , at least this one listener will consider hip hop music to be something other than the negative.

Buck 65 has produced an amazingly well crafted and uniquely individualistic album that is quite simply a fine production. Situation is an album that is a cut above the rest and is so varied in terms of sound the listener is guaranteed to be impressed by the musical production on the album if nothing else.