Open Mike Eagle
Another Roadside Attraction (EP)
Self Released
Reviewed by Andrew Medina
“Fuck sexy, Mikes bringing grumpy back.” –Open Mike Eagle. It’s nice to hear an emcee with an honest mission statement. It’s even nicer when the emcee accomplishes his/her mission. Integrity should be a given, but it’s Rosa Parks on the hip-hop bus driven by an obnoxiously egocentric driver. Open Mike Eagle is the opposition, but not one we’re familiar with. While lemmings of the underground continue to spew dated, anti-commercial rhetoric with spit-wad originality, Open Mike is far more cerebral. Fuck paper-planes and wads of paper. Mike’s the kid laying down spike strips, high-jacking the bus with a pocket-knife and spitting venom soaked darts at the jugular of rap wackness. His latest, Another Roadside Attraction (EP) is disgruntled intellect, at its best.
EP’s typically serve as slivers of a grander, more layered piece of future music, not this one. Another Roadside Attraction is a rich 9 song reflection of the multi-faceted emcee from which it was framed. Everything trickles down accordingly to the individual songs as they are intricately daggered with multiple shards of Mike’s chromosome. Subject matter fluctuates, but three things boldly underline Another Roadside Attraction. First, Mike Eagle is a smart-ass, both literally and figuratively. A perfect illustration, Lyrics from “The Financial Crisis Song”: “Your boy Alan Greenspan, does the best that he can, to walk away from this mess with clean hands. He cut interest rates to the floor in shifts, supported the lending of sub-prime mortgages, to people far too poor to afford this shit.” He can chop it up with Bill Mahr or your dad about economic-politics then fuck with the less worldly on tracks like “Career advice,” a satirical nod to his naysayers. The intro draws from another, more famous intro: “…and Bart is in the classroom writing what he will not do on the chalkboard…and I’m on the chalkboard writing that I will not sing on this song.” Not only does Eagle sing in a lot of his music but he actually sings the above lyrics. A subtle “fuck you” to what he views as unworthy givers of advice.
Again, Open Mike sings. Yes, rappers that sing often suck as much as singers that rap, he does not. It’s because an innate smoothness veils everything OME spits-forth. On “The Ballad of Netty Armstrong” he melodiously speaks lines over a remix of Billy Idol’s “Eyes without a Face.” Even in spoken word there is an undeniable allure emitted from his baritone-calm which resonates on a primal level.
So what about the rapping? As a grizzled Project Blowdien his delivery is arguably one of the more elegantly concise to emerge from Leimert since Abstract Rude. Open is a masterful beast of boom-bap. Listening to him hit his comfort zone on “The Shoulder Shrug,” is like watching Bruce Lee wield duel Nunchaku. His flow is exactly that, it is lyrical Feng Shui.
Nit-pickers may aptly pick apart some of the sarcasm within certain threads. Purists still might mock the singing. It’s also likely that a lot of what Mike says will be understood but not comprehended. And of course, OG-L.A-Undergrounders will hate their hearts out as no one from the Fellowship graces a single song. It’s ironic because he is not reenacting, he is creating with style and for that reason he is as hip-hop/ L.A./Blowed than anyone. Another Roadside Attraction is proof of that. It is the cynicism of Ebenezer Scrooge, the intelligence of Hannibal Lecter and the suave of Shaft. Above all, it is the brilliance of Open Mike Eagle.