New video for Rise, the closing track off the Flobots’ album “Fight With Tools.”

Damn, to reiterate my last post on this group, the Flobots are DEFINITELY blowing up yo! Following the critical success of their album “Fight With Tools” and an appearance on the Carson Daly show, the Flobots performed their hit single Handlebars on Jay Leno this week.

The Flobots are blowing up yo. This week they performed live on the Carson Daly show. This video shows them performing their hit single Handlebars off the album “Fight With Tools.” Congrats fellas.

Following the great success of their album “Fight With Tools” the Flobots got picked up by Universal – who created a new cartoon video for the single Handlebars off that album and posted it on YouTube here.

Unfortunately, greedy ass Universal has decided not to let anybody stream the new video. So I decided to put the old video up – which I feel does a better job reflecting the meaning behind the song that Universal doesn’t seem to have grasped.

This week’s ‘Hip-Hop Track of The Week’ is the Mayday!!! by the Flobots – off their album “Fight With Tools.” Click below to listen.

[See post to listen to audio]

Flobots “Fight With Tools” Album Review
Flobots’ “Fight With Tools” is an album that immediately jumped out from the stack of CDs I was considering for review this week – and for several reasons. First, the Flobots are an instrumental hip-hop band. In addition to two skilled emcees, the group features instrumentation uncommon in hip-hop these days, including lead violin, guitar, bass, drum and horns in virtually every track. Second, the Flobots are a hip-hop group deeply rooted in conscious political dialogue. Of the twelve tracks in “Fight With Tools,” there is not one that fails to comment on current events, world history or humanitarian unity.

But what impressed me the most about Flobots’ “Fight With Tools” was the manner in which the group presented their views within the music. While many political hip-hop acts can come across as preachy, angry or negative, the Flobots do not. Their lyrics, despite the tendency to criticize the powers that be for events such as 9/11, Iraq and Katrina, are optimistic and inspiring, and the presence of the band creates a live show vibe that is celebratory and refreshing.

The head nodder of the album is undoubtedly the album’s opening musical track, Mayday!!! This song depends on heavy guitar strums and violin chords that are masterfully intertwined with well-placed trumpet and percussion parts. The beat bounces back and forth, relying on the guitar for the verses and the violin for the hook in order to provide a canvas for switching flows and background vocals.

Yet Mayday!!! is just the first track on “Fight With Tools” that demonstrates the Flobots’ live performance potential. Same Thing, Stand Up, Combat and The Rhythm Method all seem to have a great live audience appeal. And Stand Up gives a great introduction to the Flobots’ social stance with a powerful chorus:

Stand up/
We shall not be moved/
Except by a child with no socks and shoes/
Except by a woman dying from a loss of food/
Except for a freedom fighter bleeding on a cross for you/
Stand up/
We shall not be moved/
And we won’t fight a war for a fossil fuel/
It’s times like this when you want to plot a coup/
Put your hands up and I’ll copy you/

Lyrically, my favorite track was Handlebars, a creative song that subtly breaks down the competitive natures of man, comparing a child bragging about bike riding abilities to leaders bragging about military capabilities. The following verse demonstrates this can-do attitude:

I can make money, open up a thrift store – I can make a living off a magazine/
I can design an engine sixty-four miles to a gallon of gasoline/
I can make new antibiotics/
I can make computers survive aquatic/
Conditions – I know how to run a business/
And I can make you want to buy a product/
Movers, shakers and producers/
Me and my friends understand the future/
I see the strings that control the system/
I can do anything with no assistance/
‘Cause I can lead a nation with a microphone/
And I can split the atom of a molecule/

Several tracks show this same type of lyrical creativity, including the title track Fight With Tools, which breaks down the need for more revolutionary participants in order to change our country, Anne Braden, which contemplates the concept of racism by revisiting the story of a famous fighter for racial equality, and We Are Winning, which uses voice samples to create the effect of a radio broadcast aimed at your mind.

Overall, “Fight With Tools” is an exceptional underground hip-hop release, but an even stronger indication of the potential of the Flobots. Through conscious lyrics, dope beats based on true instrumentation, and the capability to perform their music for real with a live band, the Flobots should be able to connect with a large and diverse fan base. I highly recommend joining this fan base by picking up a copy of Flobots’ “Fight With Tools.” Peace.

Related:
If you’re in the mood for other deep thinking emcees, check out Wise Intelligent “The Talented Timothy Taylor”, C-Rayz Walz “Chorus Rhyme”, and Sage Francis “Human The Death Dance”.

Album Track Listing:

1. There’s a War Going On For Your Mind
2. Mayday!
3. Same Thing
4. Stand Up
5. Fight With Tools
6. Handlebars
7. Never Had It
8. Combat
9. The Rhythm Method (move!)
10. Anne Braden
11. We Are Winning
12. Rise