4 out of 5

Label: Fill in the Breaks

Produced by: Mercies May and Chris Caesar

There’s only one real “problem” with Fait Accompli: it wasn’t produced by Ecid.  That’s a frustrating sleight, since it wouldn’t even be said if the duo (Mercies May and Chris Caesar) didn’t appear on FitB, but they do, and Ecid has touched a huge chunk of the releases on the label, so any release that drops on which the production is a little flat, I’m always surprised that Ecid would’ve been involved, except most of the time – in those cases – he isn’t.  And it’s not like Literati are lacking in fun beats – Modern Life, Parade are exciting and uptempo and grabbing even without vocals – or enhancing tweaks – closer Shade and Shadow makes excellent use of manipulated vocals – or unique hooks, like the electronic groundwork of Bad Karma – but, structurally, a lot of the tracks have a very similar tune / add a beat / rhyme / remove the beat / fade out structure that Ecid’s ear probably could’ve spruced up a bit, and the mixing / mastering is flat (Joe Mabbot, Bruce Templeton, respectively) is flat: there’s really no ebb and flow, it all hits at about the same level.  This causes a weird effect in some spots – Karma actually has this problem – where one element will dip slightly in volume so as to (seemingly) not breach the overall mastered level.  Now, just as Ecid producing his own work means he gives his beats way too much room sometimes, Literati have the consummate rhymers’ problem of simply being too good at penning lyrics, and so it’s sort of just the opposite problem: as mentioned, the beats themselves are smart, but once in place, the duo have a lot of important things to say, so they don’t mess with it much once the track gets rolling.

Is it a big deal?  Nah.  Almost every hip-hop album suffers this to a greater or lesser degree, and Literati have better hooks (musically, lyrically) and better skills than 99% of their peers, so I’m noting it, it affects the rating by a star, but now we move on.

Because the rest of the rating falls on the duo’s rhymes, which are top notch.  Topically we might not cover brand new ground – the tracks are mostly split between criticizing our shallow obsessions, or focused character studies (album highlight Echo & Narcissus), or something about a girl (Cupid) – but just like the ol’ “there’s no new story” problem, it’s not often about what you’re saying but how you’re saying it.  May and Caesar both have an engaging way of approaching their topics where it feels purely like honest observation and not preaching, or not trying to claim that their experience is any more relevant than ours.  This makes what they’re saying interesting because it doesn’t feel showy.  This is all the more entrancing given the intelligent and shifting verse structures, rarely falling back on the easy rhyme but always justified, regardless of the eyebrow raising references (‘Dickensian’ on Swoon) or ten dollar words; backpack hiphop does this stuff and you sort of roll your eyes like, I get it, you went to college.  But Literati reek of the streets while still slipping in all this stuff.  It’s an impressive feat.  And because they’re not trying to show off (or at least that’s how it comes across), the narratives can surprise: seeming boasting track No Money takes a devious turn in its last verse and a track like Way Out, about not being able to escape ‘the life,’ is simply elevated beyond its common themes by how deep the duo digs into their story.  Both our rappers have similar tones, so you can (or I) only really know who’s who – and then maybe pick out slight cadence differences – by following along the lyrics sheet, but this also means they’re both equally capable word slingers, never missing a beat, so you don’t hear a verse and think “ah, I wish (May or Caesar) had rapped that instead.”

So FitB introduces me to yet another awesome set of talent, whom overcome their Ecid-lessness via awesome rhymes and, you know, a boatload of skill.  Plus, I can almost guarantee that the infectious circus-beat of opener Modern Life will catch anyone’s ear, so you, too, can be a cool indie hip-hopper and watch your friends perk up when the track plays and pretend like they know who it is.  This is very important to those of us who like to pretend we have friends for whom we’d play music.