Ve

December 4, 2000

Heavy and angry. These are
words which have described
Godsmack since the begin-
ning of their existence.
Emotional is the other one.
= With, “no rap, no techno, no
» gadgets; it’s a hard, loud rock
record. Period. No tricks.”
This is Frontman Sully’s per-
sonal description of the musi-
cal style which Godsmack
has become known for.

Compared to previous
t albums, on Awake,
Godsmack’s’ writing has
matured a bit, bending away
from the pure anger and

maturing on this CD to
encompass a bit of meaning
as well. With the lyrical
improvement is also a ten-
dency towards an even more
aggressive style than
Godsmack has been known
for in the past. The band pro-
claims that it is “more of what
we are.”

The fact that Godsmack has
been relentlessly touring
since 1998 has a lot to do
with the new aggression
which engenders Awake.
“Most of Awake was written
on tour while we were ping-

ponging between America
and Europe, building up the
band,” relates Sully. For Sully
though, Godsmack is a way
for him to vent his anger and
it is doubtful that he would be
such a mellow guy if the band
didn’t exist. “On Awake, and
in our music, its a way of
being able to say ‘Fuck You’
without hurting someone” he
says.

The trials of the life on the
road have had their toll on the
band and the experiences
are apparent in tracks such
as Greed, and The Journey.

As for Sully, he says he
loves being on the road, and
would spend all of his time
there if he could. “If I’m home
too long, | drive everybody
around me up a wall,” he con-
fesses.

Given the stellar songs
which Awake has prompted
and the apparent ability of the
band to evolve through its
diverse experiences, “there
are clearly many, many
records yet to be lived...and
written.

Xzibit \ Produced by Dr. Dre and
Restless featuring a number of guests,
Loud/Columbia Restless shows the true

nature of Xzibit, as he releas-
es his third album in five
years.

Following At The Speed Of
Life and 40 Dayz & 40 Nightz,
Xzibit has been garnering
attention from all corners of
the R&B world, now from
Loud Records, a big player in
the hip-hop world.

With variety and intensity to
back up meaningful lyrics,
Restless is an explanation of

i

real world experiences which
Xzibit has found himself fac-
ing.
Restless also applies to
Xzibit’s habits moving
around. When his mom
passed away in Detroit at the
age of 9, he began writing
rhymes to entertain himself.
Since then he has relocated
to New Mexico, and
California, which is still one of
his mainstay residences. ~
One of the keys to. Xzibit’s
rise to success has been
“staying real in an industry

which has become plagued
with gimmicky rappers jump-
ing around in silver suits.”
One could say that Xzibit is
an embodiment of R&B get-
ting back to its roots and
away from the mass con-
sumerism scene. By Xzibit’s
own timeless hook, “it’s a
shame, niggas in the rap
game only for the money and
the fame.”

Xzibit has appeared as a
guest on other albums,
including Dr. Dre’s 2001,
Snoop’s Top Dog, and

Kurupt’s Tha Streetz Iz A
Mutha. With the mainstream
public well aware of the exis-
tence of Xzibit, he has now
called in the favors and
Restless contains guest
appearances from both Dr.
Dre, Snoop Dogg, DJ Quik,
and Erick Sermon and J-Ro,
just to name a few.

The value in Xzibit is that he
has a talent to stay real while
still producing rhymes which
entertain and catch the ear.

Nature 22 year old Jermaine
For All Seasons Baxter, a.k.a. Nature has
been quoted saying “I didn’t

want to make an album
where people are skipping
through most of the songs
and totally lost by what I’m
saying.” This is supposed to
explain the absence of three
tracks (13 instead of the
industry 16 track minimum).
Problem is that | am still skip-
ping a lot of what seem to be
mostly machine generated
tracks.

Nature was one of the

Track Maters/Columbia

LATLA

Queensbridge [housing pro-
ject] boys who are becoming
renown for their presence in
the R&B world. A long time
friend of Nas, who pried his
way into the R&B world while
Nature was still in grade 5,
Nature has ever since been
trying to gain his own place
within the tight knit R&B com-
munity. Nas more or less
took Nature under his wing
and with backers including
AZ and Foxy Brown, the crew
(as they came to be known as
a group) took their album to

double platinum with the help
of Dr. Dre.

Nature also claims to be a
bit more down to reality than
some of the other more suc-
cessful artists around.
Stating, “There’s no time bar-
riers ‘on there [For All
Seasons]. It’s street and not
too commercial. I’m not sit-
ting up there kicking a million
and one drug tales or a mil-
lion and one murder stories.
It's just real hood occur-
rences mixed with some cre-
ative fiction stories.”

Pure and to the point, For All
Seasons sports lyrics which
are understandable and
unconvoluted. However, the
reason you may not skip any
of the tracks is that there is a
tendency for repetitiveness,
something which has come to
dominate albums of the main-
stream hip-hop world.

SoundScape welcomes your opinions and contributions.
If you have a contribution to make to SoundScape, please contact Over The Edge at
over-the-edge @ unbc.ca or (250) 960-5633