Not shy about styling himself as a hip-hop renaissance man, Sean
Toure' is described as "emcee/producer/musician" in his official bio.
If you were to swap "musician" for "deejay" he could even bill himself
as a "triple threat" a la J-Live.
His bio further goes on to state that from his earliest days breakdancing
on the streets of Baltimore, "Sean has quickly developed a reputation
as one of Baltimore's and underground hip-hop's best [artists]." As a
wise man once said though, extraordinary claims require extraordinary
proof. If the man who states he's shared the stage with everyone from
Little Brother to A Tribe Called Quest is that ill, his album
"Soundchanneler, The Invisible Man" will be that proof.
One thing is certain - "Soundchanneler" is not an insubstantial album.
The pre-release copy I received comes in just under the standard limit
for a CD at normal compression rates, meaning it's almost 74 minutes
long. Since there are only 17 songs, that means some of them are quite
long as well, with 8 clocking in at over 4 minutes and half again of
those being over 5. There's also no shortage of guest stars to be found
on "Soundchanneler." In fact songs WITHOUT a guest are
the exception rather than the rule, making Toure's album more of a
compilation and less of a solo project. The only songs that don't bill
a guest of any kind are "For the..." at #2, "Hustle and Grind" at #8
and "Keep It Simple" at #15. There are some pretty notable names among
the homies that check in: J. Sands
is on "That's Not Me," yU
cools down "In the Heat of the Night" and both Ab-Rock and
Kev Brown are on
"A Day in the Life." You can check a video for the latter song below.
Toure' seems to be a fairly positive individual, which may comes as a
surprise given Baltimore's oft-grimey reputation (as seen on shows like
HBO's "The Wire"). Nevertheless it's hard to argue with him when he
raps that "Life Is Good," because his breezy backdrop beat is a production
one can easily imagine coming from Evidence or Alchemist. Despite
the challenges that come his way, nothing seems to get him down:
"Man I was late again, the boss bustin me out
But he don't know across the street I'd punch him in his fuckin mouth
Man - but I ain't goin out like that yo
Cause no cash flow means car get repo'd
No cash flow means no HBO
And no cash flow makes me a broke ass negro yo
Rent's due and my cash is low
Can't afford a haircut so now I'm lettin it grow
And let it lock up man let it flow in the wind
And damn it feels good to be the skin I'm in"
The heft and depth of "Soundchanneler" don't make this the easiest album to
digest, but there are still some individually tasty bites. I'm especially partial
to the well balanced and harmonious "Move On" featuring Wordsmith, the
warped sound fields of posse cut "I.M.A.G.E." with Substantial, Ms. Stress and
Marc Evans, and the somber horns of "My Turn" featurning Minus Nine of
Makeshift Deluxe. On the latter the star of this show brags "Toure' is like an
episode of Fear Factor [...] cause of the way I eat these whack rappers." That's
where I have to throw in a few qualifications on the overall presentation. As
Toure' bills himself as being versatile in all areas of creating a rap album from
in front of the boards to behind, it strikes me odd that some of his vocals
don't really emerge from the beats, being subsumed by the production levels.
To be honest though I'm not sure it would make a difference, because I credit
him as a competent enough rapper on the tracks, but the bigger name guests
have a tendency to rap circles around him.
The reason triple threat artists like J-Live are such a rarity in hip-hop is
quite simple: anybody can be great at one thing, or pretty damn good at two,
but by the time you try to master three crafts there's a distinct possibility at
least one of them will suffer. I can't shake the feeling while listening to
"Soundchanneler" that if he focused solely on producing he'd be a well
above average producer, but that if he focused solely on being a musician
or a lyricist he'd not rise to the cream of the crop. With that in mind I'd like
to commend him on his choice of guest artists as they help "Soundchanneler"
out a lot, but in the future I'd like to see Sean Toure' focus on his beats and
take things to the next level - instead of sharing the stage with all those big
names he might do best to be the man behind them all cashing big checks.
Music Vibes: 6.5 of 10
Lyric Vibes: 6 of 10TOTAL Vibes: 6.5 of 10
![[Soundchanneler, The Invisible Man]](../coverart/soundchanneler.jpg)
Not shy about styling himself as a hip-hop renaissance man, Sean
Toure' is described as "emcee/producer/musician" in his official bio.
If you were to swap "musician" for "deejay" he could even bill himself
as a "triple threat" a la J-Live.
His bio further goes on to state that from his earliest days breakdancing
on the streets of Baltimore, "Sean has quickly developed a reputation
as one of Baltimore's and underground hip-hop's best [artists]." As a
wise man once said though, extraordinary claims require extraordinary
proof. If the man who states he's shared the stage with everyone from
Little Brother to A Tribe Called Quest is that ill, his album
"Soundchanneler, The Invisible Man" will be that proof.