Native Guns.NATIVE GUNS Barrel Men (self-released) Native Guns have been making a name for themselves in the Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. area and as activist speakers on college campuses nationwide with alternately scathing and sensitive meditations on the realities of urban life and issues facing poor immigrants of color not of the white race; - commonly meaning, esp. in the United States, of negro blood, pure or mixed. See also: Color . Though there are a million easy cliches "revolutionary" artists can (and continue to) trot out in the name of being cheaply resonant, Filipino MCs Kiwi and Bambu (who both completed solo projects before forming the group) seamlessly intertwine academic dissections of political issues with street language and complicated metaphors that will make you smile and wonder how they manage to cram so much meaning into a rhyme couplet couplet Two successive lines of verse. A couplet is marked usually by rhythmic correspondence, rhyme, or the inclusion of a self-contained utterance. Couplets may be independent poems, but they usually function as parts of other verse forms, such as the Shakespearean sonnet, . [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Opening with a disturbing meta-narrative illustration of a "jumping in" of a new gang member ("Initiation"), Native Guns's refreshing penchant for self-examination (and indictment) is evident through dialogues on herd mentality ("Slave Thinking"), responsible activism ("Look In The Mirror"), their discovery of hip-hop lyricism lyr·i·cism n. 1. a. The character or quality of subjectivity and sensuality of expression, especially in the arts. b. The quality or state of being melodious; melodiousness. 2. and culture ("1995") and the inescapable complicity of consumers in sweatshop sweatshop: see sweating system. exploitation ("Work It"). Jeff Jabs, Obatron, Asi Friedman, DJ Rhetmattic and a slew of talented local producers and guest stars give Barrel Men the sound and feel of a veteran offering. |
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