Sole & DJ Pain 1
Nihilismo

Album Release Date: April 22nd, 2016

Sole is one of the longstanding kings of independent, alternative HipHop. Another rapper I think of who might rightfully bear that title is Slug (of Atmosphere), but Sole is far more experimental. A cofounder of Anticon in the late '90s, he released several albums through the label before leaving in 2010 to explore further creative independence. With an unconventional rap style in which his words don't always rhyme, Sole's appeal comes by way of his high-pitched bird chirp flow and poetic, stream-of-consciousness lyrics. He's super prolific, putting out over 20 full-length albums and just as many EPs, mixtapes, and collabo projects since he emerged in 1999, the most-celebrated of which is his breakthrough 2003 album Selling Live Water—an alternative HipHop masterpiece.

Much of Sole's earlier work has a kind of dusty, off-kilter sound. With otherworldly, dreamy beats and deeply metaphorical lyrics, his music has sometimes approached the inaccessible. But this is what has distinguished Sole from other indie rap artists as he's continually unafraid to explore new musical territory. At some point though he began amping up the offbeat qualities of his music, moving towards cacophonous electronic production with dense, borderline obtuse lyrics. But with so many releases, he hasn't done this exclusively by any means, showing range by occasionally creating a more conventional HipHop track. His new album Nihilismo is more refined, thematically and aurally, than some of his other recent records, with 13 tracks ranging from 3- to just over 4-minutes in length. While he's always had meaningful things to say, this is Sole's most political album to date, suitably qualified as "conscious rap".

It opens with "Generation Fucked", appropriately setting the tone for the rest of the album, as Sole raps "Bosses never liked me / It was mutual / No slow funeral / Young don't like cubicles / If there's blood in your veins, let it spill / I'm in my field, and the field gives way to condos being built / They bottle it up, sell it back in the form of pills / You can't stare it in the face, that's how you know that it's real!" The song features electronic music group Church Fire, whose female lead singer belts the chorus with passionate verve, to a head-bobbing groove that sits somewhere between HipHop, electronica, and rock—even ending with a wicked guitar solo. And so the stage is set, at once impassioned, angry, and honest—heavily critical of the system while also still managing to be hopeful and compassionate, inciting motivation to change the world.

Amidst its political forthrightness, the album features one of the most pop-oriented songs that Sole's ever recorded, with "Capitalism (is Tearing Us Apart)"—but only pop in sound because, as the title implies, the lyrical content is decidedly not usual pop song material. Featured artist Decomposure croons the chorus of "I will work harder / I will work smarter / I will work stronger / I will work night and day / I will work better / I will work cheaper / I will work longer / I will work my life away". While mimicking the sound of cheesy top-40 corporate pop radio hits, the lyrics reveal a thoroughly antiestablishment attitude. In this sense it's an ironic song, and typical of much of Sole's work, a sarcastic tone indeed permeates throughout much of the album. But the song is not without its moments of sincerity, as Sole raps "The phrases 'free' and 'friend' are linked / Its root means 'to be free' and 'have ties' / A shared power that grows, selfless / Means I’m only free if everyone else is". And so Nihilsmo isn't so much endorsing nihilism as it is satirizing it, playing as a cohesive commentary on cynicism and alienation in this hyperindustrial age of corporate capitalism.

"National Bird" is one of the album's more traditional HipHop tracks production-wise, with a beat composed primarily of electric guitar, bass, and drums. It's also the theme song for a 2016 documentary film of the same name about combat drone whistleblowers. Contributing to the album's rich texture are an eclectic mix of featured artists such as reggae musician Jah Boogie, alternative rapper Ceschi (who's also the head of the label Fake Four, through which Nihilismo was released), and Chris Hannah of legendary punk rock band Propagandhi.

Nihilismo was partially funded by a kickstarter campaign, raising over $15,000 to bring the project to life. This is reflective of Sole's grassroots mentality—in music and activism—as evidenced with the track "Too Small to Fail (DIY)". It's a brilliant title and concept for a song that bucks the too-readily revered capitalist promotion of material wealth and extravagance as an ultimate goal. Sole not only tells us that this isn't true, that bigger isn't better, but has proven it by earning substantial industry respect and making a comfortable living as an independent recording artist.  

This is Sole's second collaboration with producer DJ Pain 1, after 2014's equally interesting album Death Drive. Curiously, DJ Pain 1 has produced major label rap artists such as 50 Cent, Rick Ross, and Ludacris, whom are in many ways the antithesis of Sole. It's an intriguing partnership, as the two have come together from their respective worlds of corporate and underground HipHop, neither one compromising their own sound but rather complementing each other with unexpected ease.

And so emerges a manifesto for surviving the despair of a world seemingly on the verge of total collapse. Nihilism is a philosophy defined as the rejection of all religious and moral principles, often in the belief that life is meaningless. But to the contrary, with the ironically-titled Nihilismo, Sole and DJ Pain 1 passionately display an intricate belief system, challenging such a philosophy with grassroots ethics, a Do-It-Yourself aesthetic, and creative HipHop that stretches the boundaries of the genre.
• Nik Dobrinsky / Boy Drinks Ink
May 13th, 2016