Rating:
  Review Date: July 9, 2008
  Website: Animal Farm Website
  Label: Focused Noise Productions

Animal Farm “The Unknown” Album Review
Music critics often make the mistake of basing their claims about the talent of an artist or quality of an album on the resumes of the guest performers. In doing so, they compromise the artist’s creativity and style, failing to develop a full appreciation for the unique window into life that can be found in each album. When it comes to Animal Farm, a hip-hop group from the Northwest on a meteoric rise, however, listeners should do both.  

The group’s distinct regional flavor, gift for words, and approach to music are all accomplishments to be taken at face value. But perhaps nothing illustrates the group’s talent and success more than the fact that KRS-One joins them for a collaboration track. The title of the album, “The Unknown,” is officially misleading.

Rapping alongside a celebrated figure or not, Animal Farm is confident in their abilities, you can tell. In the first track, appropriately titled We Came to Rock, they tell the listeners to “forget the shiny rims and let the rhyming begin.”

All around the industry it’s the same song/
Innovators go hungry to wack your boy on/
So I’m squashing on these garbage MCs like old beef/
Rappers got my name in their mouth like gold teeth/
I hold teet, no hand warmers/
Rap’s emancipated, animated like transformers/

The group raps with a certain swagger and intensity, but neither is too overpowering for their carefree delivery and sense of humor. What struck me most about the album was how much fun the group seemed to be having. The members of Animal Farm are close friends from Oregon, and they show great chemistry, keeping each track fresh with their varying flows and lyrical minds.

Animal Farm, as the name suggests, delivers plenty of socially conscious rap. War addresses the corruption of government and consequences of U.S. involvement in the Iraq War. In Crying, they sing and rap the eloquent story of a boy who has no family members to turn to and confronts emotional and psychological challenges. And Animal Farm teams up with KRS-One in Peace, expressing their hopes for a future free of conflicts. The production on this track is brilliant, using a simple loop to cast a contemplative mood but also bringing in some Latin flavor in the chorus to make it irresistibly fun.

History paraphrased and stuffed in a tomb/
Antidepressants prescribed to adjust the attitude/
Sleepwalking through the mirror slicing toes on the glass/
Who knows how long this little peace is gonna last/
Cause for every piece lost there is another one to find/
Sacrificing on the grind obtaining that peace of mind/
I don’t need my piece of the pie/
What’s a monopoly, my philosophy/
KRS-one combine with Socrates’/
Anopoly we profit afore conflicted prophecies/
Little kids are killed all in the name of democracy/

Animal Farm is truly at its best when its work is accessible to a wide range of listeners. Aside from its political and social commentary, the group has several tracks that are simply catchy and fun to listen to. Its innovative wordplay is not reserved for the underground hip-hop junkies. Move It is designed to help the audience do just that:

This rap is a drug, it doesn’t wear off/
Wack MCs have to get in shape just to swear off/
They bear arms but with nervousness/
My service is to keep the party right like conservatives/
Now I hit the track with trading punching lines/
Put you down for the count like Facey/
It’s amazing to train and then compare to me/
Asking the crowd to give it up – this aint a charity/
Apparently I am a mastermind/
Smash the rhymes of invertebrae rappers that lack the spine/
I wet your appetite with music/
All I ask is you get up your ass and just move it/

From the production standpoint, most beats are simple and clean, not overloaded with synthesizers. Animal Farm also shows its creativity in tracks like Ragtime Gal, which samples some blues and takes us back to zoot suit, 23 skidoo, and jitterbug. The group’s passion for their work is shown vividly in “The Unknown,” and it won’t be too long before Animal Farm becomes a favorite among hip hop heads.

- Min Lee

Album Track Listing:

1. We Came to Rock
2. Ragtime Gal
3. Move It
4. War
5. Peace feat. KRS-One
6. The Show Must Go On
7. Mean Streaks
8. What’s Next feat. Mraxai
9. Crying
10. Idol Chatter
11. Long Road
12. Hollywood Squares feat NightClubberLang
13. Rookie of the Year
14. All Out
15. Last Call