Rating:
  Review Date: July 5, 2007
  Website: NYOIL Website
  Label: PEM / Masta Mix Records

NYOIL “Hood Treason” Album Review
To be honest with you, I’ve always been one of those “blame the corporations” types of people. When cats rap about gangbanging, killing people, selling drugs, smacking bitches, or various materialistic escapades, I don’t blame the rappers. I blame record companies for forcing artists to talk about certain topics; I blame radio stations for playing that music over and over again; I blame MTV and BET for refusing to play videos that are, say, “too intelligent.” As if the actual rappers couldn’t make the choice to quit instead.

The Player vs. The Game
Likewise, when cats sell drugs on the street, I don’t blame the dealers. I blame society for putting them in an environment where it is the only option; I blame the government for creating a minimum wage insufficient to live or support a family on; I blame the Reagan administration for flooding cities with crack during Iran-Contra (see The Coup “Pick A Bigger Weapon”). As if drug dealers shouldn’t try to find another hustle.

And within hip-hop, a culture that gave birth to such philosophical knowledge as, “Don’t Hate the Player, Hate the Game,” that frame of thought is pretty common. However, I have spent the past week listening to one of the hottest underground albums to drop this year, NYOIL’s “Hood Treason,” and it has made me think twice about my tendency to blame the system and forgive the individual.

Linguistically speaking, the slang term Hood is derived from the English word “neighborhood,” meaning a location-based community, an area which one lives in, lived in, or is in. Legally speaking, the word Treason is the crime of disloyalty, often bestowed upon a person who betrays the nation of their citizenship while cooperating with a known enemy. Therefore, NYOIL’s concept of “Hood Treason” would be someone who betrays the people of their own communities.

Or as he states in Shout It in the Streets:

Hood Treason – death to all traitors
Who would sell out their people just to earn a little paper
Rap traitors – hip-hop treason
Sold the soul in the hood for no good reason
Had the power and the force, could’ve been much greater
Could’ve been the chosen, but chose to be Darth Vader
In your Death Star frontin’ like you rep hard
You a death star, you be reppin’ death god

Accountability in Hip-Hop
NYOIL dedicates a large part of this album to these “traitors who would sell out their people just to earn a little paper.” He points to crack rappers, who floss money and drugs in their videos in a manner that makes children think it’s some glorious profession. He points to drug dealers, who bring death to the people of their own neighborhoods. He points to video hoes, who take off their clothes for money while young girls look up to them and emulate their actions. And he points to felons and gang members, challenging our communities to demand more accountability from them instead of pushing the blame for their actions on to someone else.

This train of thought had me thinking about the concept of hood treason. After all, there appear to be traitors in every type of hood. How about those cats we elect into the halls of Congress? They are supposed to represent the people of their states and districts, yet they make decisions based on dirty campaign contributions. Isn’t that hood treason? How about hospitals, doctors, nurses and health insurance companies? They are supposed to provide care to sick and injured people but will throw you out on the curb if you don’t have the money. Isn’t that hood treason? Or how about police officers, jurors, judges, criminal prosecutors and heartless district attorneys? They are supposed to protect the people by rehabilitating criminals and stopping crime, yet instead they lock up as many people as possible so the state can get free slave labor. Isn’t that hood treason?

Hood Treason is all around us, and instead of pointing the finger at the systems that facilitate this behavior, shouldn’t we be holding the involved people accountable? That means politicians being held accountable by their constituents; doctors being held accountable by their patients; drug dealers being held accountable by their neighbors; and yes, rappers being held accountable by their fans. After all, without all these individuals to support the systems we hate so much, wouldn’t those systems crumble?

Hood Treason
NYOIL takes this type of stance on several tracks throughout “Hood Treason.” Shout It in The Streets dedicates a verse to educating the listener on our country’s increasingly profitable prison-industrial complex (see Jedi Mind Tricks “Servants in Heaven, Kings in Hell”). The title track HoodTreason contains a child-sung chorus pleading rappers to “Stop Sellin’ Us Out!” And Y’all Should All Get Lynched is the Internet-famous track that calls for the death of all thugs, gangsters, video hoes and crack rappers.

The rest of the album jumps from throwback hip-hop to hard core content, from conscious themes to heartfelt personal reflections, and allows NYOIL to demonstrate his production potential, intellectual lyricism and often-metaphoric storytelling ability.

Hip Hop Ya Don’t Stop and Don’t Get It Twisted are epic sort of tracks that serve as effective odes to hip-hop, creating a lyrical path of remembrance for several old-school hip-hop trends and pioneers of the culture. Purrfect Beat and You’re a Queen are love songs that utilize metaphor and apologetic dialogue, respectively, as tools for expressing emotion. Self-Destrukkktion and Misery Loves Company are storytelling tracks that allow NYOIL to edutain the listener with the downfalls of destructive behavior and the jealousy that often accompanies personal attempts at self-improvement.

The Hate That Love Made, I Tried and Unreal are personal reflection tracks that touch on the topics of materialism, success and failure, and self-pride. And What Up My Wigger Wigger is somewhat of a sarcastic song that uses derogatory terms for a multitude of races and ethnicities to make a point about people using the N-word as a term of endearment. Mix in a series of intellectually-stimulating interludes and top of the line spoken word poems, and NYOIL’s “Hood Treason” succeeds in becoming one of the few must have hip-hop albums of 2007.

I highly recommend checking this one out, so go pick up a copy at your local record store. On your way, stop by the hip-hop radio station and tell off the deejay. Run up on that cat selling weed by the elementary school and smack him upside the head. And walk up in your Congressman’s local office and leave a nasty letter since he or she’s probably on vacation anyway. As NYOIL might say, we gotta start holding these traitors accountable y’all. Peace.

NYOIL Bio:

This whole thing started about 7 months ago. I was working with a notable producer on some music.. trying to find my voice and develope an ill style. We both felt that my lyrics and delivery were good enough to compete in the market but the question was the presentation and what would it be about. As we discussed NYOIL as a concept we came up with this sort of ninja character, faceless, with no identity that would attack the industry ruthlessly. I would overwhelm all the artist with powerful lyrics and verbal gymnastics with no fear of reprisal because I was an unknown.

I liked the concept and began to work on music with the producer and came up with my first few songs. The initial response was strong our friends were feeling the music and didn’t even know it was me, our plan was working. But when I would come home with the music things would be different. In all my years of making music and demos my biggest fans were my children. My oldest son enjoyed my “Hardcore” style but my younger children seemed confused. One day we made a song called “I got what u need” it was a real mysognistic song that was in that “i’m a pimp” vein.. and i went home and played it for my family. I remember the look on my daughters face.. and I remember the shame that i felt playing that song.. having made that song.

Simultaneously with all this was a terrible pattern going on in my life. I hadn’t really rhymed in a while so my confidence was low, to offset this I would smoke weed to ease the edge off Writing verses. The weed would make me tired and lathargic so I began offsetting the smoke with RedBull. I could feel myself dying with that combination.

I realized that I wasn’t in the right space and place to succeed I decided to retreat and heal. I knew if i was going to do anything I would need to stop smoking and change my enviornment. So I locked myself in my home and tried to get right.

While locked in the house I started doing a lot of work with UK artist and underground indie artist that made hip hop for the love started to rediscover hip hop.. and my love for being a lyricist.

Album Track Listing:

1. The Thing before The Thing
2. This is the new name
3. Hip Hop ya don’t stop
4. Nastagic Interlude
5. Don’t Get It Twisted
6. Purrrfect Beat
7. Shout it in the Streets
8. Accountability Interlude
9. HoodTREASON
10. A quick 16
11. Self Destrukkktion
12. When I speak Interlude
13. Y’all Should All Get Lynched
14. Weezy 4 Sheezy
15. The hate that love made
16. Jazzy Lady
17. You’re a QUEEN
18. Misery Loves Company
19. I tried
20. What up my Wigger Wigger
21. Unreal