Album Review: Hello Cruel World by Sole and the Skyrider Band

Now on Fake Four after leaving Anticon -- the underground hip-hop imprint he literally helped create -- rapper Sole is free of the fog-like production that characterized so many of his former label’s releases, but don’t expect it to be all sunshine and light. With his band in tow, this literate, rapping skeptic spits his bitterness over musical beds that are attractive and/or accessible, and suddenly the album’s title references Sole’s desire to bring the underground angst to the masses, injecting a little ugliness and art into your everyday programming. When Pack member and Internet phenom Lil B joins the cause, the results are phenomenal, as they are when a Timbaland-meets-Hans Zimmer beat supports the Anticon story “D.

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Back in the early half of the last decade, when Anticon was more of an abstract-rap collective and less of an experimental indie pop label, Sole was arguably the crew's most intriguing figure-- a self-lacerating prophet figure who jumbled the personal and the political into a blur of half-formed conceptual syllable-spray. He rapped so fast that you actually needed the lyric sheet he'd helpfully include in his albums, and those lyrics would be so dense and jangled that you'd also need the little mini-essays he'd pen about each song and its inspirations. Self-seriousness was his thing, and it could sometimes be a weakness; it's a big part of the reason he came out on the losing end of a terrifically entertaining beef with El-P (El: "I feel like Selena, the president of my fan club trying to kill me").

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There shouldn’t be much confusion in realizing the ever-developing role of hip-hop music. Many have turned it into an alternative new world where guest artists, samples and desire come together for a blissful, motivating presentation. As Sole, Tim Holland has continued to use these aspects in being the chief proponent to his band’s driving music.

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