Rating:
  Release Date: September, 2006
  Website: Dumhi Website
  Label: Dumhi Productions

Dumhi “They Call Me Bruce” Album Review
Damn, man … this album messed up my entire week. I took vacation this week. My babygirl flew in from NYC and we drove out to the beautiful little ski town of Steamboat, Colorado to get away from the city and chill out for a couple days. I was amped, too … not just because my girl was in town, but because I was finally going to get some time to catch up on all the underground and independent albums we’ve been getting in the mail lately.  

I had a CD stack about twenty deep, a brand new car stereo, and four days of relaxing in the mountains. I was primed to be caught up by the weekend.

On the way up, I made a quick stop to pick up some chronic (c’mon man, you gotta blaze during a nature-filled mountainous vacation … God put this here for you and me, right?), jumped on I-70 going west, and threw in the album I had put off the longest, Dumhi’s “They Call Me Bruce.” It became immediately clear that this is a chill album. Too chill, maybe, because I spent the majority of the weekend bumping it and neglected all the other albums I was supposed to listen to. Like I said … fucked up my week.

The majority of beats on this album, with production credits going to a cat called Haj, is super dope and encompasses a wide range of humor and personality. And the four MCs, while demonstrating a wide range of styles, mesh almost perfectly over fun, entertaining and occasionally marijuana-inspired tracks. Overall, they just seem like some chill cats that aren’t looking to shine or ball, instead opting to playfully yet skillfully trade off flows over head-nodding production. And I gotta tell you, that feel fit the mood I was in at the time perfectly.

Escaping Reality
I don’t know, man … the routine of daily life gets old after awhile. It seems sometimes that, in the almighty quest to spend, cats put in forty, fifty, sixty hour weeks trying to accomplish something that in all likelihood don’t mean shit. But I guess that’s just how we live, or have the opportunity to live close to well. Either way, it’s important to escape reality from time to time, maybe puff a little erb like Dumhi, and chill.

I recently read about this social problem people are developing nowadays called escapism. Escapism is basically when people create a mental escape from the often harsh realities of daily life, a problem that is apparently increasing in today’s urban technologically-based society which removes people from their biological natures. Methods of escapism include obsession with consumerism, television, sports, rich and famous people, drugs, video games, Internet, eating or exercising, among others. It can affect a person’s relationships, performance and sense of worth.

Therefore, I get out of town every once in a while. Get away from that TV and this computer and all the drama. Relax in the mountains. Take a hike, pitch a tent and make a campfire. Shit, cook some dogs or something, drink a couple brews and smoke out. But most of all, just reflect and ease my mind. It’s refreshing; it’s relaxing; it’s therapeutic. It’s a healthy escape from reality, even if I didn’t get anything done and have to jump into a mound of work when I get back.

So take that week off work you been pushing back for months now. Plan a trip to the mountains; or the beach; or the countryside. Get the fuck out of the city for a couple days. And pick up Dumhi’s “They Call Me Bruce” for the trip out. I bet it will fit right in. Aiight, I gotta run … Dumhi got me all behind now. Peace.