Last year Uncommon Nasa graced our Best Music of August 2014 list with New York Telephone, an ill communication sent to a bygone New York City stretching from the Koch-era that attacked graffiti to pre-9/11 in which the class struggle of gentrification had yet to sanitize Brooklyn. Today Uncommon Nasa released Halfway, an album that grapples with the cognizance of milestones that come with age and loss. Produced entirely by Black Tokyo, Halfway accepts the possibility of a significant juncture and determines “the rest is worth defending / live life full before ascending.”
Uncommon Nasa lays out his initiative directly through interviews explaining the catalyst as the death of a friend who was in his 80s, yet before his passing remained a vibrant life force. The passing has Nasa looking forward on the duration of Halfway rather than reflections found on New York Telephone.
Afforded the opportunity to focus on the writing, Halfway hinges upon hooks that dig at the heart of matters addressed on “Love The Cold Like A Brother” and “Ghost Over Your Shoulder”. Couplets like “reexamining life I want to be something / all of the sudden my stomach’s filled with discomfort” assess the neurological trauma of existential questions that trigger pangs of in a struggling artist, while the hook on “Love The Cold Like A Brother” seeks tinder in solitude, opting for cold veins as an upper hand. With Halfway Uncommon Nasa sustains the stress rap he’s cultivated since day one, but by “Music Is Our Children” he’s arranged the pieces, sorted out his agenda and necessities, for a transcendent epilogue.
Uncommon Nasa’s Halfway is available on vinyl, cassette, and special deluxe packages at his website.
