Rating:
  Release Date: May 12, 2006
  Website: Storm Davis Website
  Label: Poorly Drawn People Recordings

Storm Davis “Kegstand Poetry for the Recovering Alcoholic” Album Review
Everyone around me was interested in this album the second it came in the mail, mainly due to the title: “Kegstand Poetry for the Recovering Alcoholic.” I mean, we often hit keg parties around the way, and most of the people in my crew probably drink a little too much. And shit, while we’re being honest, I’m a pretty big pothead (I just like the chronic, yo … what can I say?). Therefore, an album that seemed to be based around substance addiction definitely caught my attention.

So I threw it in the car on the way to work one morning. Almost immediately after I jumped on the freeway, I hit a traffic jam. A bad one, too. A wreck had limited traffic to one lane, and I sat on 6th Avenue for like twenty-five minutes. Once I was able to merge onto I-25, I ran into another accident, and my usual half-hour drive quickly turned to an hour-and-a-half. But what’s worse is that I was trying to take some time off the smoke for a while, and was on edge a little. So I got all sensitive and heated over the whole situation . so much that I stopped paying attention to the new Storm Davis album and zoned myself out for the entire drive.

By the time I got home that night, my roommate wanted to know how that new album was: “Ay dogg, how’s that alcoholic album?” Although I hadn’t really listened to it, all I could say was . “Wasn’t really feeling it, man.” And that’s how it stayed.

A Second Listen .
Days later, I was running late and left my iPod at the crib. As I rummaged through my glove box, I came to realize that I had just one CD in the car, Storm Davis‘ “Kegstand Poetry.” With nothing else to try, I popped it in again and continued on my journey. Damn, man . I have never been so wrong about an album.

From the beginning, it became obvious that Storm Davis is not your regular underground MC. The production is unique and the beats utilize myriad sounds and instruments to create an amazing backdrop for Storm’s vocals. His intricately articulated rhymes stride through words of advice, experience, wisdom and metaphor, and show off a complex vocabulary and intellect. And his ability to experiment with multiple flows and vocals displays a wide range of styles and influences, both in and out of the realm of hip-hop. I haven’t taken it out of my CD player since, and am now placing it among the best underground releases of the year.

“Situational Attraction”
The whole experience made me think about my recent trip to Phoenix to visit family. Every time we go out there, my brother and I play eighteen holes of golf. This time, we got paired with an old retired couple that lives on the golf course. Now like many amateur golfers, my brother and I drink the entire time we’re on the course. By the end of the ninth hole, we had both killed four or five beers, and our games started to get worse and worse.

Around hole twelve, my brother pointed out the lady we were playing with while she was teeing off: “Dude, you can see her panty line . I’d hit that.” Now as much as I wanted to clown on the kid for checking out a fifty-something year old lady, I couldn’t necessarily disagree. She was looking aiight.

Days later, I explained the phenomenon to my man DJ Father Time, and he explained to me that it was a perfect example of a principle referred to as “situational attraction.” Obviously, this principle states that attraction is largely situational, and that people will be drawn to the most attractive person in the room based on comparisons of what’s available at the time. Since we were stuck on a golf course with just one lady for like five hours, getting drunk the whole while, it was only natural to start to check her out regardless of what she looked like or what her age.

Hip-Hop and Relative Truth
Now a similar theory was proposed in the 1960s by a social scientist named Karl Popper. Popper believed that all social sciences are subject to a certain degree of situational analysis, meaning that conclusions are based on several situational factors, including person, culture, time and environment, among countless others. And being based on situational factors makes something relative and therefore incapable of being absolutely true . at least in my mind.

My experience with the Storm Davis album is just one example of what makes Popper’s theory true from my perspective. Based on situational factors, I didn’t like the album the first time I heard it. My accepted truth was that it wasn’t any good. But after listening to it a second time, I couldn’t get enough of it, and had to reevaluate what I thought was true earlier. And from my elementary understanding, that is an example of relative truth. Perhaps all music is subject to these types of situational factors, and all it takes is a second listen under alternate circumstances.

So my point? Don’t listen to anything I say, or any of the other wack ass reviewers on the Internet for that matter. It’s all relative, meaning that what I’m not feeling might turn out to be your favorite album ever. And who’s to say how many good albums we’ve ignored just due to a negative situational analysis?

All I can give is my recommendations . and right now, I recommend Storm Davis‘ “Kegstand Poetry.” Pick up a copy and figure out your own relative truth as relates to hip-hop. Peace.