Rating:
  Release Date: October, 2006
  Website: brokeNdomer Website
  Label: Independent

brokeNdomer “Do You Copy?” Album Review
I’m paranoid as a motherfucker, man. I started bumping an underground release from a group called brokeNdomer this week, entitled “Do You Copy?” As soon as I got into it, for some crazy reason all I could think about was the last Terminator movie. Not one, or two quite as much, but definitely three. I peeped it one night, followed of course by the first Matrix, and started thinking about the possibilities of computers and machines taking over.

Artificial Intelligence
Then a couple days ago I saw some crazy shit on TV: A humanoid robot made by Honda that can apparently do things on its own … stuff like running, delivering a tray and pushing a cart. They call it ASIMO and it’s pretty big … four feet tall with a muscular frame, broad shoulders and shit. Kinda intimidating.

And I ain’t gonna lie, man … from the looks of it, ASIMO could probably whip my ass. Then serve beverages to the spectators. All of a sudden, I’m a little freaked by this Artificial Intelligence thing. I keep looking over my shoulder for Arnold or Agent Smith coming around the corner.

Remember in Terminator 3 when the machines were getting ready to fuck us up, and old dude and his girl were scrambling around trying to figure out what to do? Or in Matrix 3 when they were looking up waiting for the huge army of Sentinels to bust through the roof? brokeNdomer has this unique spooky-futuristic type of sound that makes me think of the machines quietly preparing to attack. And it consistently yet progressively introduces more humanistic interludes on most tracks. As if the two are battling against each other, with the humanistic vibe struggling for a voice amongst the mechanical backdrops in a metaphoric man vs. machine match up. Their lyrics also follow suit, throwing verbal jabs at concepts such as technological globalization, media control and the often hopeless and disconnected routine of daily life that they may cause. A great independent underground release.

Adaptive Consciousness
I read this book called Hip-Hop & Philosophy last year, and one of its chapters talked about something called the theory of adaptive consciousness. Adaptive consciousness is the idea that human beings possess some kind of unconscious state that we use during the repetitive and boring parts of our lives. You wake up in the morning, and unconsciously shower, get dressed, eat breakfast, drive to work … whatever. You basically just float through your daily routine. The book compares it to putting an airplane on auto-pilot. I don’t know, man … but it seems like all this technology that surrounds us is just allowing our adaptive conscious to take over larger portions of the day.

We’re creating universal remote controls and high definition TVs in our pimped out rides; exercise-for-you machines and fat loss speed pills; bite-sized computer cellular camera phones and bodybuilder humanoid robots … and then cats like me get clowned on for rocking the old-school Nokia and having a beer belly. Before you know it, nothing could be worth doing ourselves anymore. We could have a little program or machine to do everything for us, and our adaptive conscious will be able to get us through the majority of our entire lives. Like zombies just floating through the motions.

I guess some people are looking forward to that. But even more are terrified by it, and Domer and the Broke MC give a perfect lyrical and music-based description of this type of ideology. While improvements in technology and media may make our lives easier in certain aspects, they can also create a sense of disconnection from our natural human attraction to nature and activity, which can lead to feelings of worthlessness and hopelessness.

That’s why it’s good to get out at night and holler at chicks. Change your schedule a little. Take a walk to the park. Shit, come out to the CO and do some snowboarding … you can stay on my couch homie. Check out a local hip-hop show. And if you’re in the NYC area, check out a brokeNdomer and their crew. I guarantee it will be a great break from your daily routine.

C’mon ASIMO!
And for that Honda humanoid robot … it was a joke. You ain’t shit, punk. I got my eye on you. I know your weaknesses. Don’t think I won’t bite an ear, either. Walk over at your 2.7 kilometers per hour and you’ll be limping back at around 1.4 son. Peace.