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:::Underground Music Review:::
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Introducing to TallahasseeBlackPages.com community and beyond:
Brother K. Sa-Ra
Vibing with the Spanish saying (que sera) of that will be, this child of the funk will be that chosen one
bringing light to the world of the underground music scene. That’s right folks, your boy is the one able to
bring the unknowns to the world of the known by reviewing artists looking to take it to the next
level. K. Sa-Ra’s vast sensibilities began from his Rochester, N.Y. beginnings. From there he copped a
psychology degree from the prestigious Tuskegee University.
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The hip-hop historian furthered his mindframe with a Master’s in mental health counseling at Florida A&M
University.Not to be one totally tamed by academia, your boy says his Ph.D. is from SWU (SideWalk
University), so don’t come weak and full of foolishness! When the music writer, manager of an up
and coming artist and owner of his own publishing company was asked whether his reviews would be hot,
the brother's response was, in the words of the prophet Ray Charles, "It's gone do what it do baby".
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Tame One - O.G. Bobby Johnson
August 2005 Underground Music Review
Welcome, welcome, welcome, to the first
installment of the underground review. I'm here in a backroom where the neon light
flickers, brothers are out chiefin', and the sound system is bangin'. I'm catching
my vibe, when a cat walks up and dropped a project on me to review. Cool, I accept.
First thing first. Let me hip you to the K Sa-Ra rating scale. My scale goes from
1 to 5.
1 being the best that you can get. Just to be a bit more descriptive, each number
will correlate to a body part. For example, 1 correlates to "eyes". You may tell ya
fam, "good lookin'" when they drop a project on you of this rating.
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The rating of 2 is
paired with "ears". This means you will be excited to hear more from this artist "ya heard".
The rating of 3 gets the "nose". This rating is like when you find this mysteriously
wrapped plate in the fridge. First you look at it...then you smell it. It's as if
smelling it will clears up all the confusion. It's the same when you find clothes on
the floor. Before you decide what to do with it, you what? That's right. You smell
it. In fact, when you’re really confused, you ask someone else to smell it. Check,
the 4th rating gets the "butt". An underground artist really doesn't want this mark.
It means that this is where you pulled that project from. The last, and most
degrading rating you can receive is a 5. This rating, I like to call "brains". Not
because it's a work of genius, but because this is what you must have been giving
someone in order to get this project out of the studio!
'Nuff said!
The first batter up for the under ground review is a cat by the name of Tame-One. The name
of the project is called "O.G. Bobby Johnson". Ya'll may recall Tame-one as being apart of the
hip hop group "The Artifacts". I can recall KRS-1 praising the Artifacts for being the essence
of hip hop at a time when "rap" was swaying the field. Anyway, the project opens with a skit
from the movie when O.G. Bobby Johnson is just a fraction of his former self. Tame-one then
hits you hard with a cut he calls "blackout status". In my opinion, Blackout status and Lately
are just the hottest tracks on this project.
Tame-One displays why he could easily be one of the best lyricist in the game to date. Blackout
status is the essence of what is missing in the industry today. The track is boom-bap, cutt'n and
scratching, and plain ass dope mic control. It's plain to see that Tame-One is pure talent and
skill on the mic. He definitely understands the importance of intelligence in the rhyme,
fluctuation of style and punctual delivery. This is apparent throughout the entire project.
The upside of the project is that Tame-One flaunts, with ease, that he could beat a great portion
of the m.c.'s that are out today while he's asleep. The one thing that this project lacks, is
vision. From the jump, Tame-One should have used a theme from Eddy Kane Jr. of the Five Heartbeats
instead O.G. Bobby Johnson. Just about every single song on this 14 track project is about getting
high and using drugs. The project is just too narrow in it's scope. Tame-One has issues that
bleed through like a pre-pubescent fifth grader who has had womanhood find her in front of
the class (oooh!). A number of tracks on this project are mediocre at best, then there are those
that Tame-One rips. My rating for the "O.G. Bobby Johnson" project is a "3". This project
definitely gets the nose. I praise it, at the same time I'm disappointed. In my confusion,
I turn to my peeps and say, "yo son, smell this".
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