Rating:
  Review Date: December 12, 2007
  Website: Amsuno Website
  Label: CommonWealth Records

Amsuno “Animated Stagnation” Album Review
Amsuno is an emcee that sounds a little bit like a bunch of people, yet doesn’t sound like anyone. That’s really the best way I can try to explain this talented rhyme slinger. Sometimes Ams’ rhyme style sounds a lot like C Rayz Walz to me. Other times his delivery is quite reminiscent of Sage Francis. He often stresses syllables and accentuates vowels in a way that makes me think of Mr. Lif. And a couple tracks allow him to boast a verbal energy and explosiveness similar to a young Eminem.

Combine these four emcees, shuffle them around a little, and you might have an initial idea of what Amsuno sounds like on the mic. Whatever it is, it helps make “Animated Stagnation” a dope listen.

“Animated Stagnation” is nonstop in-your-face rhyming from beginning to end – on pretty much any topic or direction you can think of. Uno Potato is one of the more creative tracks on the album, a complex set of verses revolving around dozens of children’s nursery rhymes. The following verse gives a good example of Ams’ ability to spit some straight entertaining metaphoric rhyme shit:

There once lived a lady who lived in an old shoe
With three blind mice in the kitchen itching for a cold brew
A big bad wolf on the front lawn with sharp teeth
Waiting for three little pigs ‘cause with them he got beef
Across the street is a house made of gingerbread
Two kids went in and never came out – yo, I think they’re dead!
It gets real cold on this yellow brick road
Where bitches ride the same broomstick the wicked witch rode
Some would bust shells like heads fell victim to crack
They picked up pieces to a cipher, still they couldn’t bring ‘em back
As the clock stuck one all these rats came out the woodwork
They’re just trying to see what under Ms. Little Red Riding Hood’s skirt!
She paid ‘em no mind – she’s looking for her grandma
But little did she know the old ho was at the damn bar

Interesting rhymes, huh? Other verses show the more straightforward consciousness of Amsuno. Woe to Dem is a track intended to tell alternate versions of reality and society. The following verse seems to rhetorically question the existence of fear in society:

In this digital age we’re weighed like criminals caged
Engraved like slaves and paid our minimum wage
Plagues were created and made like AIDS
The neighborhoods were invaded and they blamed it on apes
Be afraid!
Their intentions to intimidate can penetrate
Your well being – being human beings we’ll disintegrate
Into a state of nothingness while sufferers don’t know no end
We’re breaking bread I got the last supper while singing woeful hymns

Nonetheless, the majority of Amsuno’s “Animated Stagnation” is happy and fun rhymes from the standpoint of a positive old-school-appreciative hip-hopper. Echos of the Past is a track dedicated to memories of the golden age of hip-hop. The following verse from that song tells a great story about how hip-hop has helped to define Ams’ memories:

I miss the old school before Pro Tools and mo’ tools
Before CDs were pressed and cassettes were sold – FOOL!
Before wax became an endangered species
Around the time when ET had me craving for Reece’s
I watched Beat Street and shed a tear at the end
I cried when Ramone died and disappeared in the wind
Remember? Hip-hop was a movement and force
Before the Source fell of and started loosing its course …
And I was there when Special Ed was the youngest in charge
And my dad got mad ‘cause we just hung in his garage
While listening to “The Fear of a Black Planet”
A white kid with a flattop that would act frantic
Everytime I heard rap music I became alive
Born in ’78 – then born again in ‘85

Word. This album has many more quotable verses and is a must have for any hip-hopper in tune with the underground. And best of all, it’s just a sign of what’s to come. As it turns out, “Animated Stagnation” is composed of all remixes from an original 2005 version, with the addition of 3 new tracks – intended to wet your whistle for new Amsuno material to be released in 2008. But if you never heard the ’05 version, which I hadn’t, you probably won’t even be able to tell.

Either way, I highly recommend picking up a copy. I guarantee that “Animated Stagnation” will definitely make you look forward to Ams’ ’08 release while allowing you to catch up to what you missed in ‘05. Peace.