Rating:
  Review Date: March 14, 2007
  Website: Clockwerk Website
  Label: Sandpeople Music / Superhappywax

Clockwerk “Due Yesterday” Album Review 
Over the years, East coast, West coast, and Dirty South hip-hop have all developed their own comprehensible sounds. This basically means that you can listen to music from each section of the country and tell where it’s coming from. And in many cases, that accurately describes the commercially-monotonous sounds you hear on the radio.

The Northwest Sound
Nowadays, the big craze in the world of underground hip-hop is the Northwest. Cities like Seattle and Portland are putting Northwest hip-hop on the map, and there is a huge buzz about it on the Internet and in the underground. Most of this buzz seems to revolve around cats talking about some “Northwestern Hip-Hop sound.” This continues to confuse me, because throughout the myriad Northwestern hip-hop albums we’ve now received, I find myself unable to pinpoint this so-called “Northwest hip-hop sound.”

Now that’s not to say that Northwestern hip-hop doesn’t have new, innovative and creative sounds, because it definitely has that. However, I don’t understand this perceived “Northwest hip-hop sound,” because despite their uniqueness, the majority of Northwestern hip-hop crews I’ve bumped to date sound different not only from East coast, West coast or Southern rap, but also different from all the other Northwestern stuff I’ve heard. And with so many unique sounds coming out of the Northwest, it seems lazy to attempt to classify all in one huge category of Northwestern hip-hop.

I guess that’s why I liked Clockwerk’s “Due Yesterday” so much. This album is completely unclassifiable yet from my perspective very representative of Northwestern hip-hop. Every track has a different sound, and I was amazed at the range of production created by just a handful of producers, most hailing from the same Oldominion crew. The emcees, Gold and iAMe of Sandpeople, demonstrated impressive verbal skill and flexibility in their ability to take each beat and essentially make it their own. And these cats are definitely trying to say a little something, with conscious topics ranging from informative to entertaining; from light hearted to dead serious; from angry to exultant. Overall, a great listen that should help boost Clockwerk for their current tour and their upcoming debut album “Some Tomorrow.”

Anyway, this got me thinking about the increasing buzz surrounding the Pacific Northwest. Maybe everybody’s tired of hearing the same old “sound.” Maybe the sounds labeled East coast, West coast or Dirty South are starting to bore people, causing them to move over to what they perceive as “the Northwest Sound.” And perhaps that Northwest sound is simply uniqueness. Perhaps it’s just so different from what everybody else is doing that it rips holes in society’s preconceived notions of what hip-hop is supposed to sound like, thus warranting some sort of classification. Because from my perspective, everything I hear out of the Northwest is new, different, and hot, and the latest of many recent examples is Clockwerk’s “Due Yesterday.”

Giving Props
Okay, so my regular readers know that this is normally the section where I try to break all y’all fools off with some knowledge; where I talk about something intellectual as relates to the album. And as you also know, I often clown on other wack ass Internet reviewers for their lack of originality, thought or creativity while reviewing an album.

However, while researching this album, I came upon a review written by some cat at Ground Lift Magazine that proved to me that I am, as a hip-hop linguist might say, “not the only pimp ’round here yo.” This cat reviewed Clockwerk’s “Due Yesterday” in light of the concept of culture industry as proposed by German philosopher Theodor Adorno. Adorno’s theory basically stated that popular culture could be used to manipulate the masses into passivity. He felt that repetitive aspects of popular culture, such as the same type of music played all day long, could make people more docile and content, regardless of their exterior circumstances. In other words, they might be brainwashing you with that radio motherfuckers!

In any case, being that I am an honorable guy who’s willing to admit that we’re not the only hip-hop website out there publishing conscious shit, I’ve decided to push you over to Ground Lift’s review of Clockwerk and Theodor Adorno’s idea of the culture industry below. It will still be included in this week’s quiz. Peace.

Clockwerk’s “Due Yesterday” by Ground Lift Magazine