Scott Morrow is ALARM’s music editor. Patrick Hajduch is a very important lawyer. Each week they debate the merits of a different album.
GDP: Useless Eaters (Run for Cover, 3/29/11)
GDP: “Quintuplets”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/02-Quintuplets.mp3|titles=GDP: “Quintuplets”]Morrow: With a background in hip hop as well as hardcore and punk, New Jersey rapper GDP approaches his genre with a unique perspective, coupling an unfiltered vocabulary with sociopolitical themes, banging beats, and a decidedly Aesop Rock-style delivery.
His newest full-length, Useless Eaters, quickly gets at the underbelly of America, whether discussing drugs, war profiteering, climate change, or big-brother distrust. “Neural Circuitry” begins the album with high-energy hi-hats and a nearly G-funk synth groove, but it hits hardest with its subject matter: hardcore drug use. There’s underlying intellect, however, and in making a passing reference to Afghani opiates, GDP rhymes, “Soldiers aren’t dying for us / they’re risking their lives for the change / a full ride to college or a meaningless grave.”
Hajduch: Australian producer Aoi makes clanging, colorful synth-based beats that remind me somewhat of the kaleidoscopic dubstep pushed by people like Hyetal. It’s glammy and full of square waves, and for all the clamor and seeming lightness, it still bangs. The fidgety beats fit GDP’s restless rhymes well. He’s equally comfortable deploring battle rap as he is deploying it.