Ok, so The Foo is not completely versed in hip-hop and rap. Don't get him wrong - he's owned and loved a few. But, as far as keeping up with what's hot and what's not...well, Foo will rely on his musical and audio skills here and tell you all about the smooth sounds of Anatural. There's a lot of info about this rapper, his bio sheets reads from the beginning, born in Brooklyn, influenced by various artists, musical achievements by the age of 14. But, the Foo is mainly concerned with telling you about how smooth Anatrual's words can flow.
Cruising through the songs he's uploaded here at LiveAudioMag, it didn't take long to find Foo's fav. There were several songs featuring this person or some other artist but, the tune that won the Foo over was "Me and You - featuring Claudia Janelle". (Foo likes the sexy part at the end where she's talking in French! - Saweeet!). So, Me and You has got a couple different movements inside the track and that's what really separates this one from the others. Not that his style doesn't come through on the other tracks, it's just that this one seems to match the lyrics to his style. The chorus repeats "Me and You, You and Me" which drives home the fact that the lyrics on this track are all about a romance. And the interplay with female backing vox, adds color to the scenery. The imagery in this track leaves me with memories of rockin' straight through the sunset at a beach, and into the sunrise. I see marinas with big boats, big beaches and of course some of the other important imagery in hip-hop - the cars, the penthouse, the bling, etc....it seems that he brings the whole thing around to conveying the ideas of money and security to the romance aspect of the song.
Woah! - Foo got a bit carried away w/ the lyrics. Well, it is a rap song and lyrics are key. But, what about Foo's fav part - the audio? Hmm...now
Anatural does mention his current background man in his bio. Amir Saleem, is given credit as his current producer. The part of rap that confuses The Foo the most is how there are many people behind one artist. In just about any other genre, this attitude would be a band or a group, but, Foo supposes that the rap always needs a hero.. The confusing part (without any detailed credits) is exactly who did what? Ok, lets' go with Amir producing and playing on most of the tracks. This music definitely sounds like it was made on the Akai MPC series stuff. And the Foo must say it is all good - nicely arranged music, great transitions and oh, the drop outs! - The drop out (where the music stops briefly) is to Foo, a most key aspect of good hip-hop and the music on ANatural's tracks have tasty nice drops in just the right spots.
Honestly, if Foo must critique (and of course he feels he must - just a bit) the only big schezwon Foo has with this track is a bit of mixing. The background vox have been through some great studio techniques that are tried and true, doubled vox stacked with delay that's timed perfectly to the beat. Hmmm....so what's bothering Foo? Ok, it's hard to hear but, there's one tiny note in there where the singer is a bit flat - it's really hard to hear and took awhile to pick it out but, none the less it's there. The other part that Foo just thinks would sound better in the chorus hook is actually a little less. The female vox on "me and you.." Comes in a bit to strong - it's not that all the track levels are not correct or anything technical like that. It just that her particular voice has a sharp high-mid tone and when it first hits the mix, it seems a bit off. Perhaps it might have been smoother if the higher doubled part was left out an instead replaced with that up close whisper technique. That would be a bit sexier and even match the French samples at the end (which Foo would love more of throughout the mix - but, now you see Foo's weakness! - hahah).
Anatural and Amir Saleem have got some killer tracks started here and The Foo wishes them a great and prosperous career. Foo's parting message: punch up the creativity and enhance ANatural's natural smoothness. Good luck guys and thanks for the music!
Anatural
FooStats(out of 10):
Audio Quality: 7
Originality: 6
Spicey factor: 7
Chops: 5
Total: 25
