YES! It's not just the title of K-Os' last album (released last year in Canada), it's the theme of this album. YES! is a departure for K-Os, who's previous work was generally very earthy; influenced more by Mos Def and Tribe Called Quest than anything going on in mainstream rap or pop. With YES!, K-Os delves into an electronic, poppy sound that has more in common with David Guetta than Kanye West.
For most independent artists, that's a sign of a sell-out - trading originality and creativity for record sales. With K-Os, that thought barely crosses the mind. From the moment the album begins with "Zambony," YES! is bursting with energy and innovation. K-Os races through this album with a vitality that he's never heard before.
YES! simply doesn't belong in any one genre: he's rapping, but the blazing guitar riffs, fully-developed bridges and lack of loops mark this as a pop/rock album. YES! races forward at a breakneck speed, reaking havoc on any preconceptions K-Os' fans might have had.
K-Os's best quality has always been the complexity of his music - levels above virtually any other raper. Most hip hop is essentially a bass and drum loop, a couple sythesized notes, and a sampled chorus. K-Os's music is bursting with depth; drawing inspirations from dozens of different instruments, sounds and genres in every song.
The actual rapping is almost superfluous, but it's still pretty good. K-Os is mostly on his own here, with only one guest rapper checking in on the standout track, "I Wish I Knew Natalie Portman." K-Os scales back on the political commentary that marked his earlier work, replacing it with a more vague, introspective tack. It works well with the music.
It's odd that the singles for this album are the most rap-centric songs, but that's probably record label shenanigans at work. The heart of this album is the breakneck speed of "Eye Know Something," the easy hop-and-skip of "Uptown Girl" and the switching tempos of "4,3,2,1."
No album is perfect, but YES! is about as close as it gets. There's are no weak songs here - even a few of the weaker choruses (K-Os ruins a great smackdown of the hip-hop industry with his hook on "Burning Bridges") still work on some level. It's a lot to take in at first, but this is an album to take with you on a deserted island. This is one of the most musically diverse albums in the past few years, period. K-Os bursts out of every label we've placed on him before, and it's a sheer joy to listen to.
+ Every song is good. Most of them are great.
+ The most innovative, musically diverse hip hop albums ever.
+ Paced beautifully. Knowing when to slow down and speed up an album is a rare skill.
+ Never a dull moment.
- K-Os might want to leave most of the singing to people who are better at it.
Rating: 4.5/5
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