Sy ShacklefordFormer CunninLynguists member David “Mr. SOS” Diaz took on a doctor motif after leaving the group. His 2006 EP was titled “The Pre-Op” and that culminated into his “Dr. Strangelove” persona. Taking inspiration from the 1964 Stanley Kubrick political satire of the same title, SOS’s 2009 summer debut LP was entitled “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb”. Though largely ignored upon its release, the album’s themes have become more pertinent in later years with the advancement of technology (especially A.I.- artificial intelligence) and its effect on human communication. Though SOS had shown he had rap punchlines, political lyrics, and introspective rhymes, his debut mostly has him laying out his vision for humanity’s future, and it ain’t pretty.
The Ricky Raw-produced “Apocalyptic Doomsday” kicks of SOS’s dystopian vision. Over boom-bap, record scratching, and striking vocal samples from Mr. Lif, SOS speaks of natural disasters and the Revelations in store for humanity. Ricky Raw also helms “2013”, which utilizes the same drum sample as the album opener, but has a more optimistic vibe musically and lyrically. The Beatchefs lace SOS on “Work”, allowing him to explore the emotional impact of being a wage slave. His cynicism on corporate America shows with his first-person account of having a soulless job. The album’s first single, the Tonedeff-produced “Bionic”, made its way on the video game “Test Drive Unlimited 2” in 2011. Tone includes electronic and mechanical sounds to drive SOS’s point about technology not surpassing humanity, but instead completely supplanting it:
For the semi title-track, “Dr. Strangelove”, the Beatchefs provide a synth-heavy beat as SOS adopts the persona to take down lyrical opponents via braggadocious rhymes delivered in the third-person (“deranged, crazy, or all of the above?”). “Save You” seems out of place with its radio-friendly production, though in fairness, SOS did start the track off by saying “Gonna do something new, this is for all of you…” which, in this case, is for the ladies. The melancholic pensive sound on “The Balance” is provided by Quincy Tones. On it, SOS recognizes a thin line between any two opposing dynamics when he raps “Cause life’s a baton, you take it and you run with it / But not everybody’s gonna let another one win it / And so we fight and we fight / Trying to get the balance right / from the start until the end of your life.” Krohme makes use of Chipmunk soul on the paranoid “I Can’t Sleep”, with the vocal sample asking the relevant question of “how can you sleep in these troubled times?”:
The Jefferson Airplane-sample on the psychedelic “What’s MK Ultra?” is courtesy of the Cypher Linguistics. Within, SOS takes the place lyrically of a subject of the same illegal C.I.A. program of the same name. The final four tracks begin with the self-produced soap operatic “The Young & The Innocent”. SOS produces a raw boom-bap beat with a lyrical assist from Cashmere the PRO, whose deep voice serves as a contrast to the song’s message about the folly of youth. “Exposé”, produced by Pedro y El Lobo, is a layered and atmospheric instrumental. The Beatchefs’ “Time Capsule” features songstress Steph on the hook, but tellingly ends with a modified sample of HAL 9000 from “2001: A Space Odyssey”. The album closes with “Welcome to the Future (Chew Fu’s BIONIC RMX)”. This is more of a bonus track as it isn’t a remix to “Bionic” from earlier, nor is there any rapping on it. If anything, it’s Chew Fu’s interpretation of it.
“How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” is a prophetic album, in retrospect. Given the rise of A.I. and the fear of such technology replacing human jobs, it’s surprising people haven’t organized Charlottesville-esque marches while yelling “A.I. WILL NOT REPLACE US!”. Lyrically, Mr. SOS shines on his introspective tracks and his analysis of then-modern trends. Though the album’s theme could’ve had more of a conceptual story to it, it’s adequate for hip-hop heads and conspiracy theorists alike.