The Honorable Sleaze – This Funk (Just Plain Sounds)
The Honorable Sleaze is a Richmond MC who is co-president of forward-thinking hip-hop imprint Just Plain Sounds. This Funk is his self-released, 15-track album, available for free download from blocSonic.com.
Sleaze has a deep voice, unhurried flow and down-to-earth persona that remind the listener of Chicago MC Rhymefest. Grown man rap. Pull your pants up. This everyman style comes through the strongest on mid-album one-two punch “It’s Not Difficult,” about the joys of fatherhood, and “School Zone,” where city schools are viewed as the last place a kid would go to better themselves.
The Honorable Sleaze – This Funk (Just Plain Sounds)
The Honorable Sleaze is a Richmond MC who is co-president of forward-thinking hip-hop imprint Just Plain Sounds. This Funk is his self-released, 15-track album, available for free download from blocSonic.com.
Sleaze has a deep voice, unhurried flow and down-to-earth persona that remind the listener of Chicago MC Rhymefest. Grown man rap. Pull your pants up. This everyman style comes through the strongest on mid-album one-two punch “It’s Not Difficult,” about the joys of fatherhood, and “School Zone,” where city schools are viewed as the last place a kid would go to better themselves.
The nicely textured beats, mainly self-produced with some help from Just Plain Ant, are based around tweaked soul samples, and bring to mind later Dilla and early Kanye. Sleaze’s plainspoken flow does best on the mellower tracks, and he sounds as out of place on the dancy numbers as he would probably feel at a dance club.
Overall, this is a far-above-average street album, and worth the space on your hard drive, but I can’t help but wonder how much more exciting it would be if the MC focused less on the well-honed “Honorable” part of his name, and explored a bit more of the “Sleaze.”
