Rating:
  Review Date: June 25, 2007
  Website: Zeph & Azeem Website
  Label: OM Records

Zeph & Azeem “Rise Up” Album Review
Hip-Hop music is normally not that complex. For the most part, artists are fairly easy to categorize. You got your gangsters. You got your thugs. You got your backpackers. You got your emo rappers. You got your revolutionaries. You got your old-schoolers. You got your crate diggers. You got your conscious emcees. You got your mainstream pop stars. And probably 90 percent of all hip-hop acts can be placed in one of those categories. Unfortunately, this is not always fair for the other 10 percent.

Categorizing Hip-Hop
Somewhere along the line, hip-hop reviewers, critics and even fans got so lazy and uninspired by those repetitious categorizations that when they happened to stumble across someone who was too broad, complex or experimental to be categorized, they just threw them in a category anyway. They labeled Kweli and Mos backpackers. They labeled K-OS and Lupe Fiasco mainstream pop stars. They labeled Sage Francis and El-P emo. They labeled The Coup and X-Clan revolutionary. They labeled Nas and Dead Prez gangster and thug. Even though we all know that each of those cats is way too complex be neatly packaged, labeled and categorized as such.

Zeph & Azeem are another example of a hip-hop group that cannot be categorized. Their exceptional underground release “Rise Up” contains fifteen unique and experimental tracks that succeed in creating its own sound and direction. Some songs have a reggae feel. Some songs are Latin-influenced. Some songs are jazzy. Some songs are electronic. And some songs are straight up turtablist and lyricist hip-hop. But all of them are hot, and they combine to make Zeph & Azeem’s “Rise Up” one of those can’t miss hip-hop albums of 2007.

Rise Up
The album’s opening and title track, Rise Up, is a reggae track. Ten Steps Ahead manages to maintain a reggae feel with the incorporation of more electro funk sounds. Come One Come All takes us straight back to pure hip-hop with break beats and samples of Sadat X’s “Come one, come all, we about to get hectic.” That Type of Music takes the album in a jazzy direction with a piano loop and quick paced treble-styled percussion beats. Ay Mami displays more of a Latin vibe with horns and claps. And Play The Drum is based on a what appears to be a child’s nursery rhyme, and is reminiscent of Jay-Z’s Hard Knock Life.

The rest of the songs waiver between reggae, jazz, funk, Latin, electronic and hip-hop sounds, and all songs successfully allow Zeph to showcase his productive, sampling and turntablist skills and Azeem to showcase his lyrical, spoken word and clever microphone skills. There is not a dull moment in this entire album, and as a listener I could not help but sit in awe of the wide range of skills demonstrated by the group’s two impressive performers.

Zeph is undoubtedly a master beat maker, and Azeem undoubtedly a master microphone controller. Together what they have produced with “Rise Up” is literally mind-boggling. Whether you like hip-hop, reggae, funk, or jazz, this album will have something spectacular to offer you. Give it a listen and you’ll see what I’m talking about. Peace.

Zeph & Azeem Bio:

Azeem’s lyrical background-he’s a champion slam poet as well as a performance artist/playwright (”Rude Boy”)-comes through loud and clear on “Here Comes the Judge” and the first single, the ominously-titled “That Type of Music.” Never one to hold his tongue when there’s a deeper truth to unravel, Azeem “paints with no brushes or easels” on the funk-infused “One Moor Time,” and delves into soulful, jazz-tinged metaphysics on “Alpha Zeta.” He draws on his Caribbean ancestry over a rock steady-meets-SoulSonic Force groove on the title track, and flips even more West Indian cultural flavor on “Time to Wake Up,” alongside roots chanter Tony Moses and Quannum songbird Joyo Velarde. The dancehall-style trackswere inspired by Azeem’s family, he says, who were “always buggin’ me about not havin’ no reggae on my albums.”

Meanwhile, Zeph-an in-demand club DJ who’s been active on the remix circuit for years, in addition to producing two solo albums–matches Azeem’s versatility beat-for-beat and track-for-track, showing why he’s the best-kept secret behind the boards since Diamond D. Old-school 808 bass drops, retro-funk, tasteful turntable cuts, dub-influenced treatments, African and Latin melodies, and loads of subtle musical elements make Rise Up well worth listening to, even if it wasn’t saying something that means something (which it is, in case you were wondering).

Though the duo, who have been working together since 2001’s #1 college radio hit “Rubber/Glue,” have had their share of ups-and-downs and setbacks in the music industry, they’re confident that not only is Rise Up their best work to date, but the one which will finally clue the rest of the world to the fact that they’re doper than the 1st and 15th of the month. As Azeem, who has five prior LPs to his credit, recently told the SF Chronicle, “this is the first of my albums that’s gonna be promoted properly.” Don’t believe the hype-real hip-hop ain’t dead yet. If you’ve been sleeping on Zeph and Azeem, now’s the time to wake up, so you can Rise Up.

Album Track Listing:

1. Rise Up Featuring Luv Fyah
2. Ten Steps Ahead
3. Come One Come All
4. That Type Of Music
5. Ay Mami
6. Here Comes The Judge
7. Bonus Beats
8. Kush In The Bush (Interlude)
9. Time To Wake Up Featuring Joyo Velarde & Tony Moses
10. Alpha Zeta
11. Play The Drum
12. Everything’s Different Featuring Tut & DJ Teeko
13. Make Your Brain Swing
14. Last Call (Interlude)
15. One Moor Time + (Bonus Track)