Fake For Real - Tag - ExistereoThe English written companion of Fake For Real: since 1997, reviews and articles about rap music2024-03-11T20:40:46+01:00Sylvain Bertoturn:md5:a035ff44a020bb716e18191580d6e9ecDotclearTHE SHAPE SHIFTERS - Know Futureurn:md5:e98570276637f409a97d55c03456695a2015-11-09T23:12:00+01:002022-12-19T10:20:34+01:00codotusylvAlbums2MexAwol OneCircusExistereoLife RexallMatreRadioinactiveShapeshifters <p>Here is, for sure, one of the most bizarre and original records ever released in the hip-hop genre. Just think about it: this looks exactly like a very long two-hour posse cut, where a very big bunch of rappers, all weirder than the others, are declaiming a never-ending collection of ego-trips, schoolboy pranks, and delirious speeches about things like the dinosaurs, the Egyptian pyramids and the Martians.</p>
<p><img src="https://english.fakeforreal.net/public/Pochettes/2000/shapeshifters-know-future.jpg" alt="THE SHAPESHIFTERS - Know Future" title="THE SHAPESHIFTERS - Know Future" /></p>
<p><strong>Meanstreet :: 2000 :: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00004TQZ5/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00004TQZ5&linkCode=as2&tag=fafore05-20&linkId=ZLU7DYLTN2DISK3O" hreflang="en">buy this record</a></strong></p>
<p>On top of that, just imagine an assortment of implacable beats, mixed altogether at a mid-tempo pace, and consisting exclusively of atmospheric loops with absolutely no groove. Then, add to this formula some strange and psychedelic noises looking like the soundtrack of some science-fiction z-movie. And you get two records full of very similar music, the only exception being the incongruous heavy metal-sounding "Gen. X Dot All". Hey, I am not selling this well, am I?</p>
<p>Well, actually, I should, since this compilation of tracks recorded from 93 through 99 is just great. It does work, thanks to the guys featuring there, all charismatic – in their own ways, all unique, and all aimed at flooding the Californian indie rap scene with a multitude of remarkable joint or solo projects, all over the 2000's.</p>
<p>Those rappers, belonging to the Shape Shifters collective - the Y2K generation of the Project Blowed tradition – were Life Rexall, Radioinactive, Existereo, Matré, 2Mex, Awol One, and some others we may forget about – they were so many. And of course, Circus, the most brilliant of all wack MCs, was part of them. Beyond his own verses, he was the true inspirer of this double album, which had his production style, his conspiracy theories, and his weird sense of humor – sentences like "lesbian serial killers could help reduce the population", these kinds of stupid things... Also, as if this was not enough, the Shape Shifters had invited some like-minded rappers, more particularly people related to Anticon like The Pedestrian, Sole, Sixtoo and Buck 65 so that they can share their own rants.</p>
<p>Do you remember the time of your first teenage excitements? When you were discovering music your mother, or your dumb classmates, did not dig at all, while you just loved it? Do you remember how exhilarating this was?</p>
<p>Well, with <em>Know Future</em>, it is the same story again. Except that it is no longer your parents, or the guys in the schoolyard, who are doubtful. It is your neighbors now, your kids, or the boom bap purists. It is these rock snobs with a subscription at <em>The Wire</em> magazine. All these easily influenced people, crushed by the weight of conventions – though they think they are just the opposite – and who cannot understand, because they are not seeing things from the planet Mars, like the Shape Shifters said they were doing on <em>Know Future</em>, an album it is almost impossible to listen in one go, but which cannot be experienced in a different way.</p>https://english.fakeforreal.net/index.php/post/2015/THE-SHAPE-SHIFTERS-Know-Future#comment-formhttps://english.fakeforreal.net/index.php/feed/atom/comments/2303EXISTEREO - Dirty Deeds & Dead Flowersurn:md5:f2b5436a15760046177f5099fc0c9db12014-11-15T15:22:00+01:002014-11-30T11:48:36+01:00codotusylvAlbumsExistereo<p>According to his press kit, Existereo was influenced by the likes of Hank Williams III, Black Sabbath and Gram Parsons, in addition to some rappers. This sounded just ridiculous, these people covering genres as diverse as country, metal or hip-hop. And though, it was credible, to whoever was familiar with this rapper - and graffiti artist. His records, indeed, were all incredibly eclectic, even for a member of the Shape Shifters, starting with his first album, <em>Dirty Deeds & Dead Flowers</em>.</p>
<p><img src="https://english.fakeforreal.net/public/Pochettes/2003/existereo-dirty-deeds-and-dead-flowers.jpg" alt="EXISTEREO - Dirty Deeds & Dead Flowers" title="EXISTEREO - Dirty Deeds & Dead Flowers" /></p> <p><strong>Dead Guy Records :: 2003 :: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0010HIB76/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0010HIB76&linkCode=as2&tag=fafore05-20" hreflang="en">buy this record</a></strong></p>
<p>This record from the only slim member of the Shape Shifters, indeed, had a strong heavy metal imaging, with its title derived from AC/DC's <em>Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap</em> and its cover art full of guns and roses. Also, the tattooed rapper started – and finished – the album with the first words of Paul McCartney's "Live and Let Die", before engaging into some indescribable sound maelstrom. Later on, among some solid raps, Existereo would propose some nonchalant jazz duo ("Duck Feathers"), and close it with duck quacks. He would also invite some Portuguese speaker ("Get that Freak off"), or go country (then end of "Sometimes Before").</p>
<p>These were 75 long, crazy, inconsistent and frustrating minutes, but with many great tracks: "Rhymetime", a true banger; the above mentioned "Get that Freak off"; the cleverly scratched "Sometimes Before" with Inna Space, Existereo's brother, and his partner in crime with the WhyKnows; "Cut me Gently" with Die Young; the grandiloquent but convincing "Subconscious Carnaval", etc. And of course, we should not omit the main dish, "Four Day Window Pain", a track with four movements, produced by Daddy Kev, a particularly inspired and bold beatmaker, since his experiments with free jazz and the <em>Slanguage</em> album.</p>
<p>The album, also, was full of guests: some Shape Shifters core or affiliated members first, of course, like Awol One, 2Mex, Die and Liferexall, but also some other key players on the Californian underground rap scene, like Darkleaf, Busdriver, Tommy V and Gel Rock of EX2. All along this record, it would burst out.</p>
<p>This album was, according to Existereo, a memorial to his youth. The rapper, however, would never cease to display a juvenile energy. His next albums, like the great <em>Crush Groove</em>, or the <em>Mixed Drinks Vol. 1</em> record he would release on a Russian label, or his duos with Metfly (Overfiends) and Oldominion's Barfly (Candy's 22), would all be made of the same ecstatic and youthful mess.</p>https://english.fakeforreal.net/index.php/post/2014/EXISTEREO-Dirty-Deeds-Dead-Flowers#comment-formhttps://english.fakeforreal.net/index.php/feed/atom/comments/2164SHAPESHIFTERS - Adopted by Aliensurn:md5:b95099f10a74377edeb1f7bee26972512012-09-01T12:23:00+02:002022-12-19T10:20:53+01:00codotusylvAlbumsAwol OneDie YoungExistereoRadioinactive <p>In the year 2000, a period of glory for the indie rap scene in general, and more particularly for this bunch of Angelinos, the Shapeshifters had thought of everything. In addition to <em>Know Future</em>, a record which looked like a 2 hour posse cut declaimed by a multitude of MCs on nonsensical beats – their true masterpiece, though – the Californians had released just after, on Daddy Kev's Celestial label, an <em>Adopted by Aliens</em> much easier to grasp.</p>
<p><img src="https://english.fakeforreal.net/public/Pochettes/2000/shapeshifter-adopted-by-aliens.jpg" alt="SHAPESHIFTERS - Adopted by Aliens" title="SHAPESHIFTERS - Adopted by Aliens" /></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.theworldofhiphop.com" hreflang="en">Celestial</a> :: 2000 :: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000053F00/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000053F00&linkCode=as2&tag=fafore05-20" hreflang="en">buy this record</a></strong></p>
<p>As the <em>Star Wars</em> and <em>Star Trek</em> inspired cover art attested it, this album had been made with the same mold as the other. The Shapeshifters were still adapting to the nerd culture freewheeling and virtuoso raps inherited from the Project Blowed, scattering them on chaotic beats and outer space sounds. But this time, those almost sounded like true songs, instead of never-ending tracks, undistinguishable from the others.</p>
<p><em>Adopted by Aliens</em> recycled songs they had already released on <em>Know Future</em> – "Brain Fish Oner" and "Beatle Borg", renamed "Brainfish Reanimated" and "Beetleborg" – or on their first album, <em>Planet of the Shapes</em>. They did the same with tracks from the <em>2012</em> and <em>Triple Threat</em> EPs – like with the old school sounding "Strange Birds", and this "Mixtape Megamix" signed by their deceased DJ, Rob One. These, however, were organized in a less anarchic way, and benefited from a better sound, supplemented with relevant scratches.</p>
<p>For those who lacked reference points with the Shifters, this almost normal album, the most classic among their first three, was the best entry point to their universe, thanks to small melodies, those created by the great Omid on the introductive "Who's Got Presents?", by Fat Jack on a "Wake Up Dead" where featured Mikah 9 from the Freestyle Fellowship, or the piano which accompanied MCs philosophizing about the flight of time, on "Words of Wizdumb". Even the weirdest noises sounded catchy, when mixed with the warm and erratic voice of Awol One on "Flossin'". And let's not forget the final and epic "Korn Bizkit" where the Shifters were mocking some ludicrous rap metal bands of the time.</p>
<p>On <em>Adopted by Aliens</em>, only Circus' delirious stances on songs like "Mos Eisley" were still beyond neophytes' comprehension. Those needed to taste and enjoy the rest in order to understand fully what the Shapeshifters' formula was: an update of Afrika Bambaataa's creative, open and exuberant "Planet Rock" – the Californians were proposing a version of this for 2012, just here – and, more generally, the bona fide music of the year 2K.</p>https://english.fakeforreal.net/index.php/post/2012/SHAPESHIFTERS-Adopted-by-Aliens#comment-formhttps://english.fakeforreal.net/index.php/feed/atom/comments/1831EXISTEREO - Crush Grooveurn:md5:54f3543bdfe576ca5283e44a9dda84e72004-09-22T22:28:00+02:002014-12-14T12:58:07+01:00codotusylvAlbumsExistereo<p>Released one year after the great <em>Dirty Deeds and Dead Flowers</em> (2003), Existereo's new album is made of the same wood. Like it, <em>Crush Groove</em> is full of guests, styles, and very eclectic beats. It looks like some crowded compilation; especially since it includes tracks already released on previous records</p>
<p><img src="https://english.fakeforreal.net/public/Pochettes/2004/existereo-crush-groove.jpg" alt="EXISTEREO - Crush Groove" /></p> <p><strong>Dead Guy Records :: 2004 :: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0011ADAT6/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0011ADAT6&linkCode=as2&tag=fafore05-20" hreflang="en">buy this record</a></strong></p>
<p>Beyond the great "Rhyme Time", which is remixed in a more relax and less bombastic way than the original version, the jazzy "Eyeball" is recycled here, which already featured on Deeskee's <em>Blacklight Sessions</em>, as well as "All About the Rhyme", which was on The (English) League's last album. On this record, also, Existereo shows his greatest strength: his ability to propose some lightened and simplified version of the Shape Shifters' formula, a more accessible one.</p>
<p>As always with this collection of incredibly creative Californian rappers, we are proposed a festival of raps and sounds. Existereo plays the crooner on "Above the Sea", he lists his imaginary fans on some very bouncy beat with "Who you Rockin' For", he raps at very high speed on the "Cautious Thunder" crescendo, he is using some electronic sounds typical of the beatmaker Subtitle on "Work Related"...</p>
<p>This is some pure Shape Shifters delirium, but with a strong capacity for building real songs and true bangers, and without the never-ending litanies typical of the group, and more particularly Circus. This high accessibility may not be enough to classify <em>Crush Groove</em> as a Shape Shifters masterpiece. But for sure, for neophyte, it is one of the best and easiest entry points to the music of this strange crew.</p>https://english.fakeforreal.net/index.php/post/2004/EXISTEREO-Crush-Groove#comment-formhttps://english.fakeforreal.net/index.php/feed/atom/comments/2175