Steve 'Flash' JuonWhat do you do when every aspect of entertainment has become artificial? The music is generated artificially. The videos for the music are generated artificially. The reviews of the albums… you get it. Human beings have been removed from the equation. Actually it might be more accurate to say they’ve been removed from controlling the output. Human beings were still involved at some level, but their data was scraped up and amalgamated into a homunculus AI, one fed human data and told to act how a human would act. The problem is you can tell when you listen to it, watch it or read about it that no actual soul of a real person was involved. It all feels synthetic and plastic.
The intro of “Fire & Brimstone” is definitely not artificial. Cappadonna isn’t even reading from a script he wrote down for it. He’s coming off the dome and he trips over himself trying to deliver his message. “That heat, that lava, that acid, on top of your head. Let that shit melt into your cee, soo, uhh, cerebral Gore-Tex, and leak down into your neck.” I’m sure he meant cerebral cortex but I rewound this a dozen times and I’m convinced he said Gore-Tex. If he got it right and I’m hearing it wrong, he was still flustered and sputtering trying to spit it out either way. That’s authentic. I’m not going to argue that it’s GOOD but at least when I hear him speak I know it’s not a machine talking.
“Gas, ass or grass/nah, nobody ride for free.”
In a discography littered with strange albums and weird artistic choices, Darryl Hill has always been a one of one in all the best and worst ways. I look forward to Cappadonna because he’s an auteur in a world of robots. That makes “Fire & Brimstone” unintentionally disappointing because despite the packaging “The Package” is the only solo Cappadonna song on this 31 minute album. Let me be clear and say that doesn’t mean he’s not appearing on the other seven songs. You know who is though? Warren Degraffinreaidt and Addiemak. The title track features Warren. “Winning Team” features Addie. The other five songs feature both — and frankly the entire album feels like a vehicle to market both instead of a collaboration between a-alikes.
My issue here is marketing. If you’re going to have a collaborative album, bill it as such. They don’t want to call “Fire & Brimstone” a Cappadonna x Warren x Addiemak album because some schmuck in a suit thinks it won’t sell as many units. I’ve got news for them — there are very few of us buying a Cappadonna album to begin with. If you can’t be honest about what this is then we’re not going to trust you the next time around when his is the only name on the cover. I feel like Darryl was talked or maybe even coerced into this idea because he sounds entirely lethargic. The best Cappa bars are highly energetic even if they’re nonsensical. On “Nobody Like You” he’s devoid of any enthusiasm whatsoever. Even the bars he wrote have been drained of their essence. This is what children write in the cards they exchange in the classroom on Valentine’s Day. This isn’t Cap.
“You still my love, you my love still forever more
You the one that I love, the one that I adore
I been searchin’ for love, but I ain’t searchin’ no more
All the love that you put in got me feeling secure”
Just read that again for a moment and think about it — he rhymes more with adore with more again. That’s zero effort. He’s not trying. Why should he? This isn’t his album. He’s on it, he participates in it, but he’s been turned into an artificial version of himself. That’s not the kind of music I want from Cappadonna. I don’t mind a few guest features on one of his releases, but I don’t want Darryl Hill to wind up BEING the guest on something that was ostensibly supposed to be his. If this was a marketing ploy to get Warren and Addie over then I’m not impressed. Have them form a group and release their own shit and let Cap do a couple of cameos on it instead. Skip this one.