Rating:
  Review Date: April 9, 2007
  Website: Symmetry Website
  Label: Poorly Drawn People

Symmetry “Dusty Pickup” Album Review
Well, it’s official … Providence, Rhode Island is officially on my personal hip-hop map. From my perspective, a city has to have either three dope emcees or an upcoming label to hold a place on the map, and Providence has just reached both quotas. Last year, the city boasted Storm Davis, whose “Kegstand Poetry for the Recovering Alcoholic” held a spot in our top ten underground albums of 2006. Recently, Reason’s “Gemini Slang” made another favorable impression. And now, Symmetry and his exceptional album “Dusty Pickup” have solidified both Providence’s place on the hip-hop map and Poorly Drawn People’s place among upcoming hip-hop crews.

Most albums that are reviewed on this website are for one reason: They are albums that make me want to talk about something. The major problem I had with “Dusty Pickup” was that it made me think about several interesting topics, and I couldn’t choose just one. Therefore, I have decided to base this review on my three favorite Symmetry songs, and what each made me think about.

Hater
The opening track on “Dusty Pickup” is a song called “Hater,” which tackles the common theme of haterism in hip-hop by offering individual verses to so-called old school rappers, cliché rappers and gangster rappers who disregard other forms of hip-hop as lacking realness. Personally, I would probably be considered one of the old school followers who occasionally look down on the younger generation for lacking knowledge of the history of hip-hop. For such fans, Symmetry offers the following verse:

What up old school rapper, so-called purist?
Game’s outdated starting to get nervous
Style ain’t changed since the motherfuckin’ nineties
That’s far behind we
That ain’t being real
That’s not being ever too progressed with the times
You want some motherfuckin’ super fresh eighty-nine
And I don’t mind, just don’t preach to me
Hip-Hop’s not dead, it’s on a different frequency
A new thought that you cannot become accustomed to
And swear up and down that I’m not hip-hop as much as you
Well get the fuck out my way and let the young man
Grab the S up in the gate and rock it with my one hand
You just spit it like “You’re not as real as me”
And gon’ substitute your old age for credibility
I got respect for my roots and my elders
But not when they try to go indebted and be selfish

Symmetry makes a good point here about old school rappers who “try to go indebted and be selfish.” Many times us older hip-hoppers look down on the new kids and “substitute our age for credibility” for no other reason than the fact that we may have been a part of this culture before they were. In reality, it’s often us who are lacking realness, because we are denying the existence of evolution and growth in hip-hop. While I do feel that it’s important for the younger generation to understand and appreciate where this culture came from, it’s not fair to measure realness on something as insignificant as age or experience. No matter what style or direction, hip-hop is hip-hop, and we should try to appreciate and understand that a little better.

Back There
In track six, a song titled “Back There,” Symmetry uses rhyme to reflect upon three memories that made him miss his past. This intrigued me, because I have held a similar mind state recently. I moved across the country for the second time in my life this week, leaving behind family and friends for a new life in another city yet again. While driving my pimp ass Chevy Prizm through flat and boring Kansas, I found myself reminiscing about a lot of old times. Regardless of my excitement for a new adventure, I was sad thinking about my peoples and the experiences we’ve shared. With this in mind, one of Symmetry’s verses jumped out at me:

We never had shit to do
Just wake up and go to school
Straight fucking with the teacher trying to make her loose her cool
I turned around and son I already knew
She’d make me stay right there when the bell rings at two
Give me more homework, just a hassle of course
But I ain’t fucking with that, I’m on the basketball courts
With the older cats clowning; talking that shit
Wonder why a motherfucker cuss whenever he spit
A couple years ago I went back in my past
And seen my desk sitting right up in the back of the class
The basketball courts ain’t had no rims
And no trace of anybody like there was back then
No shorties on the side that’s watching they man ball
Then everything that used to be so big became small
A tear fell down from my eye, I said damn
It kinda hurt to go back there again

It seems like I’ve spent the last ten years moving around and trying to make something happen. While I do believe this is good, I often regret the fact that it has caused me to loose contact with my homies.

The preceding verse made me think about playing ball in high school with my two best friends, Henry and Jerome. Damn, man . the three of us used to be inseparable. I remember running game at Far East Recreation Center in Columbus everyday after school, walking like five miles home and clowning the entire time. Or when Henry fell of the top of the car and struggled not to cry when we poured half a bottle of peroxide on his wound and watched it bubble. Or when Romeo tried to be a baller and wore that suit to school, only to slip and fall in that puddle. Or when J Long tried to cross the field and got caught knee deep in the snow. HA! That shit makes me laugh just thinking about it. But as the homie Symmetry might say, “It kinda hurt to go back there again.”

She Asked
My favorite track on this album was titled “She Asked,” and it made me think about my grandmother. My grandmother, who is perhaps the most intelligent and open-minded person I’ll ever know, talks about religion and faith a lot. One of my favorite theories of hers is her Sabbath philosophy. In Christianity, the Sabbath is a weekly day of rest ordained by the Ten Commandments. Despite the fact that she is not a Christian, Grandma used to say that everyone needs a Sabbath. To her, a Sabbath is simply a day to yourself . a day of fun or rest or appreciation that all people need regardless of which religion they follow or what their beliefs. I always found it inspiring that she was capable of interpreting religion in a manner that best fit her beliefs and lifestyle. In “She Asked,” Symmetry takes a similar approach:

She said, “Do you believe in Heaven?” and I said yes
It’s when I get home from my work and I undress
It’s when I find a way to get away from the stress
It’s when I lay my head on my bed and then I rest
I never found it in a church
Never found it in the works
Of a way of life
Or in a book that somebody else writes
Cause Heaven is a place where the trees grow green
And the summer and the winter’s blowing through your window screen
I never walked around with my eyes fixated on the skies
I try to tell myself what could be lies
Cause then I wouldn’t notice everything that I’m in front of
If my head was in the clouds then I’d miss everything that’s under
I wonder what comes next
But it’s a bit complex
So family and friends get the number one respect
And cousin if you ever meet the man that you believe in
Tell him I’ll be doing me, and explain to him the reason

In this verse, Symmetry doesn’t claim to know “what comes next,” but creates a visual image of what it might be for him. Perhaps Heaven is some individualized place that is what you want it to be. Maybe it’s just a compilation of all our experiences and feelings. And to be honest with you, Symmetry’s version of Heaven doesn’t sound bad at all to me homie.

As you can see, Symmetry’s “Dusty Pickup” offers several bases for discussion while maintaining a high level of quality and creating an enjoyable listening experience. This kid is a talented and intellectual lyricist who covers a variety of topics and points of view. His style is both universal and specific as he experiments with a variety of flows and flavors while maintaining a consistent and contiguous sound. And once again, Poorly Drawn People’s resident producer Dox creates an album full of smooth and melodic beats that seem to bridge the gap between old and new school sounds.

Overall, Symmetry’s “Dusty Pickup” is one of the best underground releases of the year thus far. I highly recommend checking out the record, the entire Poorly Drawn People crew, and the newly acknowledged city of Providence, Rhode Island and it’s upcoming hip-hop scene. If you have a personal hip-hop map of your own, Providence just might be a good place to explore. Peace.