Steve 'Flash' JuonI’ll say this up front to avoid any confusion — the Propellerheads are not a rap group and if you don’t consider their “Extended Play E.P.” a rap release that’s fine too. If you want to generously say that Alex Gifford and Will White are a trip-hop duo, or that they’re EDM artists with rap influences, I wouldn’t argue with you either. My own personal definition would be that they were avant garde musicians who felt a certain kinship with rap, which is how they wound up collaborating with several rap acts on this “E.P.” As a long time De La Soul fan the song “360° (Oh Yeah)” put the Propellerheads on my radar back when the “E.P.” dropped in 1998.
“Now as the sun appears to rise and set
some cats live for the hood cause it’s as good as it gets
But my plot is much thicker, I move it much quicker
360 miles to the +P.H.+… and so I’m balanced” – Pos
As always the wordplay of Plug One is on point, making a pun out of the abbreviated name of the track’s producers, but Trugoy/Dove/Dave shines on the track too. Maseo even manages to get a few scratches into the mix before it’s all done. They aren’t the only Tongues that are Native to this release though, because the Jungle Brothers also join the presentation for two versions of “You Want It Back.” I prefer the full length version with its gradual shift to being a super up tempo song and equally fast rap, but either one gets the job done.
I suppose that being inspired by all of these rap collaborations was what led Alex Gifford to call himself “A.G.” and spit his own bars on “Props Vote of Gratitude.” This turned out to be the tipping point for me to actually consider it a rap album regardless of what anybody else might think, since it crossed the entirely arbitrary “fifty percent” threshold in my own mind. I’m going to be honest too and say that Gifford doesn’t embarrass himself on the mic. He spits a lackadaisical flow that befits the laid back track, although some might find the way his pitch jumps up and down from word to word annoying. Personally I think for one little experiment though he did fine. Perhaps Pos did some coaching.
In the end that song and their work with the JBeez and De La just convinced me that the Propellerheads had serious respect for rap music and culture, which makes it all the more surprising to me that the “Extended Play E.P.” was a one off project. I think they were onto something here and it would have been nice to see them collaborate with a whole slew of rap artists from the U.S., Europe, Japan, and everywhere else in between. The group didn’t last though, ending their work as a duo in 2003 and releasing their last official single in 2004, so they’d have to reunite first before even attempting something like this again. It’s a nice change of pace from the usual rap fare of the 1990’s even if it wasn’t meant to be a full time thing. And yes — the non-rap songs are good too.