May 17, 2005 @ 4:05 am

Zion I -True & Livin'

by: AJ Wolosenko

Bay Area hip hoppers seem to share a similar mix of optimism and pessimism when it comes to hip hop. On one level they're in love with the music, on another level they're frustrated by where it's going. For the left coast, hip hop is a beautiful thing, but the fact that the mainstream has almost exclusively become an arena for the celebration of excess is cause for anger. It's not that they don't appreciate the hip hop that gets played on MTV and the radio, it's more that they wish it weren't all the same. Oakland-based duo Zion I's third album, True & Livin', is another solid entry in this ever-growing tradition. It's a love letter to hip hop that doesn't pull any punches-it's too honest to not be effusive at times, but it also isn't interested in trying to hold back any of its dissatisfaction. MC Zion and his producer partner Amp Live have created an impressively cohesive sonic landscape utilizing break-beats, horns, scratches, and whatever else fits. It's their headspace on wax, letting you know exactly where they stand. So, if hip hop is a metaphor for life, then True & Livin' is the earthy and gritty side, a bass-n-piano licks LP. The album feels rootsy and real, and ultimately it stays positive. When MC Zion rhymes about contradictions and frustrations on "Livin'," he ends by repeating that "the spirit never ends." The track is a mantra made all the more powerful by a happily eerie piano that rides under the chorus and sounds like it was recorded underwater. In "Americka," an army march beat builds to a climax full of electric guitar that gives a solid base for the rapper's serious concerns that he "might be going crazy" just because he's thinking about reality. Both of these songs might as well be about the undeniable hardships of the group's love affair with hip hop. To top it all off, the album's guest spots are impeccable. From Talib Kweli to Gift of Gab to Aesop Rock, each and every one stops by to lend his distinctive voice to the mix and illustrate their respect for the music that they love. When you think about it, the tension surrounding the love of hip hop that continually crops up in Bay Area rap isn't all that strange. San Francisco and Berkeley were where the hippies grew up, after all. In Zion I and their counterparts, we might just have the hippies of hip hop, eager to break the system down, that they nevertheless can't stop believing in. As a result, True & Livin' is an album full of contradictions, and that's what makes it so interesting and appealing. This is hip hop done for the sake of love, and it shows.

Article tags: Talib Kweli, Gift Of Gab, Aesop Rock, Zion I, Bay Area, True & Livin', Zion I', MC Zion 

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