Published June 16, 2006
Although live recordings seldom do hip-hop bands justice, Thugs On Parole’s performance at Hitt Húsið may just be the single most energetic, hilarious, bracing and altogether perfect little thing ever captured on record. Three skinny white boys barely crawling out of their teens who pepper their lyrics with references to crack cocaine, prostitution, guns, gang warfare, science fiction, physics and – you guessed it – rape, the Thugz pull no punches in their surprisingly professional delivery, as confident in their simplicity and directness as they are in their bizarre obscurity. Also of note is the spectacularly cheap but brisk production in the beats, a perfect showcase of the marvels one can achieve by letting go of all pretentious perfectionism and just doing what comes naturally. The phasing synths of High-Tec and silly sound destruction of Tha Crack make a perfect backdrop to Thugz On Parole’s sustained overlapping energy; they have excellent chemistry together, and the fact that the two most recently completed songs on the record, Psychologic Project and Cash Money are easily the tightest and best performances is an optimistic indicator of things to come. (This record has not been officially released. To obtain a copy, e-mail a request to melurno1@hotmail.com.)
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