In the year 2000, most were not ready for Quasimoto's The Unseen. It was a record well ahead of its time, possibly too weird even for the Houston districts that were sipping lean and bumping DJ Screw tapes. In the 12-years since the Lord Quas debut, rap has undergone the proper transformations to overcome the crack rap obsesssions of the 90s and explore the effects of high-grade marijuana, psychotropics, sampling everything under the sun, and canonizing regional sounds as fair game for any takers with respect to the originators.
The result pushed to its furthest limits sounds like the Muppet Show after whippets and a blunt laced with embalming fluid. The duo of producer Every and rapper J| | | | |M, make up Jim Henson In The Vice Grip. While we can't imagine this group taking the stage, we're thoroughly pleased with its reclusive blend of codeine-muddled production and split personality rap bravado. J| | | | |M splits time in the baritone and tweeked-up alto tones, but neither side is the angel on the shoulder opposite the demon. There's no altruistic filters in J| | | | |M on “4TEEN”, just pure brain numbing hedonism. Chilling J| | | | |M's madness is Every, who submerges the cold croon of Denali's “Gunner” into a trap rap sound pit.
Jim Henson In The Vice Grip's CORBIN DALLAS LP is out May 25 on OUNCE.
