It's Naked Time!

Remember in my Sole interview when I asked him who Time was? He's like I have no idea, and I'm like, "well, your on his new album." He remembered and said, "ahhh thats my homey time. he's from denver. he's become a good friend of mine. sometimes when i think someone shows a lot of promise i do music with them." Well, Time was good enough to send me his album (plus a bio), so we can delve into the matter a bit further.

Time's a solo MC (yes, from Denver), though he's also part of a 2-man crew called Calm, with producer AwareNess, who also did more than half of his latest album (which makes the distinction between a Calm album and a Time album pretty thin). It's called Naked Dinner, and it's his third, not counting the Calm album and an EP he mentions in his bio. It's on Dirty Laboratory Records.

Now, I've never read any William Burroughs, but just seeing Cronenberg's movie was enough for me to get that this album is full of Burroughs references, and the album has more than just a punny title in common with Naked Lunch, from a hook about botching a William Tell-style shooting to the bugs and typewriter in the artwork. I'm not really sure why it's full of Burroughs, though... I guess it just serves as atmosphere?

Anyway, it's a pretty solid album. Time sounds like a cross between early Eyedea and Braille when they're in full concept song mode. Their website (I'll drop the link at the end) says AwareNess's beats sound like early RZA, Pete Rock & Large Pro, "but he manages to transcend all of them." I give him credit for having the nerve to write that and make it public, but it's not true... he doesn't sound like any of them at all. His production is good, though, don't get me wrong; but it's of the 'mood above funkiness' variety. It's like haunting synths and strained samples - not the kind of you're gonna want to bump in your jeep like those other producers' work, but fitting for songs called "Cockroach Goddess."

Content-wise, the album's actually got a lot of variety. He goes from rapper biography to a song about vampires to one about never growing up. Guests include Sole (as previously established), C-Rayz Walz, who sounds surprisingly like Bizarre on this record, and some guy named Damon JeVon who's on five or six tracks. Time breaks out the autotune on two or three tracks, which is interesting to hear on a decidedly underground-sounding album. The quality of the lyrics is as varied as the subject matter. He certainly gets points for scope and he comes up with some genuinely effective lines and moments... Other lines just come off as kinda silly and confusing, with cloying attempts to be clever like:

"Charlton Heston told me that
Soylent Green is people,
With pink stars, yellow moons,
And babies and steeples.
The clouds rain panic,
And I rain on command
With teardrops, snow flakes,
Mobs and man.
She wears a bullet-proof heart;
He wears a Dick Dastardly smile,
With carnations in his teeth
And a spastic style.
She can't believe it's love;
He can't believe it's not butter.
She shows her breasts like car wrecks
Making his privates flutter."

I mean, I think that verse is supposed to be a sillier moment on the album (I hope), so maybe it was an unfair verse to pick out of context... and his songs with a stricter focus are do tend to flow more smoothly. But you see what I mean: he sounds a bit young (I mean his writing, not his actual voice). Once he gets past that, he could really be an MC to watch out for; but even as it stands now, Naked Dinner is a decent quality album if you fall into his niche style audience. You'll know if you perked up or groaned when I mentioned "early Eyedea" and "concept song" in the same sentence.

Time has a myspace here, and also a pretty nice official site for him and his label at dirtylaboratory.com. And Naked Dinner is available at ughh, itunes, and probably where ever else you frequent online.


P.s. - I apologize for the title of this post... couldn't help myself.