Rating:
  Review Date: February 22, 2007
  Website: K-OS Website
  Label: Emi Int’l

K-os “Atlantis: Hymns for Disco” Album Review
Well, K-os has done it again … “Atlantis: Hymns for Disco” is his third classic album in just three tries, and has solidified his spot as one of my top ten emcees of all time. He is one of very few rappers who has the unique ability to blend opposites so easily. He is both serious and fun. Both conscious and perplexed. Both classically-influenced and currently-influential. Both hip-hop and bigger than hip-hop. His music goes beyond any genre, and represents the true correlation that can exist between artist, soul and sound.

Hip-Hop & Mythology
And in the process, K-os talks about some wonderfully magnificent and intelligent topics. “Atlantis: Hymns for Disco” has several mythological references. In one song, he references Isis, the queen goddess of Egyptian mythology who represents the role of mother and wife. In another, he references King Midas, a character in Greek mythology who had the ability to turn everything he touched into gold. In yet another, K-os references Valhalla, a hall in Norse mythology that is the home for those slain gloriously in battle, and valkyries, the female deities who carried the most heroic warriors to the hall where they became spirits. And let’s not forget the album title Atlantis, which was an island in Greek philosophy that supposedly sunk into the sea after a failed attempt to invade Athens, yet which is generally seen as a myth created by Plato in order to illustrate his political theories. Interesting stuff, huh?

Time, Space and the Big Bang
Yet there was one series of thoughts that seemed to keep coming up song after song in “Atlantis: Hymns for Disco.” Throughout several tracks, K-os talked about time, space, the universe and the mind, and the correlation that all may have with each other, with life, and with music. Confusing, huh? I agree, and to be honest with you, I don’t really understand a lot of what K-os is saying . but it’s got me trying to figure it out.

In separate tracks, K-os defines time as “a thief that leaves nothing behind” and life as “a mystery” that could be “the end of all history.” In others, he believes that his music is “broadcast from the universe” and that his humanity is derived from the recognition of “magnetic attraction pulling light down to this physical fraction.” And K-os consistently contemplates the beginnings of existence, a time when “the light shined so bright,” claiming that “we fell from the sky and universe” and that “we were all born in the flame.”

A lot of these statements made me think about some stuff I was reading recently about the Big Bang Theory. Big Bang is the dominant scientific theory about the origin of our universe, our galaxy, our planet, and basically, the origin of us. According to this theory, the universe was created sometime between 10 and 20 billion years ago after a cosmic explosion hurled matter in all directions. Now apparently, the big bang resulted in mass abundances of elements, mainly 75% hydrogen, 25% helium and some miniscule percentage of trace elements. These elements eventually cooled and expanded to create the galaxies, the stars and the planets.

Now maybe I’m looking at this from way too much of a simplistic perspective, but to me this means that everything in this universe is essentially composed of the same elements . hydrogen and helium. Everything around us, from the sun and stars to the food we eat and that blunt you’re smoking on is composed of the same basic elements that are just different compositions of matter. So maybe you and I are composed of the same elements. Maybe you and God are composed of the same elements. And maybe, just maybe . you and hip-hop are composed of the same elements. Or as K-os might say:

In the beginning the light shined so bright
Within the city of my mind-scaped night
Listening, glistening the moon
Reflecting the sun, making me one with the music

So if we are indeed “one with the music” and one with the universe, that would mean we have existed all along . throughout the entire 20 billion year history of the Big Bang; obviously not as conscious human beings, but as matter nonetheless. Perhaps we are without beginning and without end . perhaps time is unreal. Or as K-os might say:

Life is a mystery
This could be the end of all history
But wait, the sun rise in the east
And the world still spins 360 degrees
On its axis
This intergalactic practice of rhyming
Proves there’s no beginning or ending of timing

A Reason for Being
If this is the case, I would think that some catalyst would be necessary; some reason for our transfer into consciousness or our ability to remain conscious. For without our consciousness, we would just be part of the hydrogen and helium-composed matter that is the make-up of our universe. And maybe, just maybe . that consciousness is only realized through things we consider real or tangible: things like love, or money, or even hip-hop. Or as K-os might say:

We fell from sky and universe
When we fell in love with the sound
Of the birds and all the ocean lights
And the gravity pulling us down

I don’t know, man … but I do know that people use all kinds of things to actualize their existence. Some people have God. Some people have money. Some people have their jobs, or their families, or their hobbies. Shit, some people even have drugs. What’s so wrong with having hip-hop? Maybe it’s our love for hip-hop that keeps us going, that keeps us conscious, that keeps us alive. Thank about it. Peace.

Related:
This is one of the few albums to receive a perfect 5 star rating this year. If you like it, you should check out some of 2006’s classic releases, including Lupe Fiasco “Food & Liquor”, Jedi Mind Tricks “Servants in Heaven, Kings in Hell”, and KRS-One “Life”.