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C-RAYZ WALZ AND SHARKEY
Monster Maker
Babygrande, 2007
8.0/10, Excellent [scale]

Monster Maker

Producer Sharkey, even when juxtaposed with Europe’s DJ Sharkey, can be easily confused. Both are DJs who spell their name with an ‘e’. Both seem to push their genre’s envelope. Both watch it bend. But hip hop’s Sharkey is from DC, and his UK counterpart is a hardcore dance pioneer. It’s the American Sharkey who debuted with Sharkey’s Machine in 2004. The year’s hidden gem (top 10 of the year according to the Washington Post) caught the ear of veteran Definitive Jux emcee C-Rayz Walz. Three years later, these underground monsters of music have made a monster of an album under the moniker of Monster Maker.

While a mouthful for many, Sharkey seems to have no problem fitting anything and everything into his monstrous mixing jaws. He’s chewed so many different influences up and spit them out into this record that sometimes you forget you were listening hip hop. In fact, if the emcee playing second fiddle in Sharkey’s mad ensemble wasn’t as charismatic as C-Rayz, you wouldn’t be.

That might be the most amazing thing about this album: Walz’s bars don’t drown in Sharkey’s ocean of eclecticism. The beats are often so inconsistent and atypical of hip hop, that most emcees would have trouble constructing verses around them. Comparative work of course, has been endeavored by Baltimore’s DJ Danger Mouse. The difference is that his projects, while innovative, have been conventional enough to keep Cee-Lo (Gnarls Barkley) and MF Doom (Dangerdoom) afloat.

That’s not to say that C-Rayz is flawless on Monster; he doesn’t always keep up with the insanity, leaving his flow gasping for air. This is exemplified by the two relatively anemic verses on the fantastic opening track, “This ‘Ol Twisted World”. Outshined by a 70s era sing-a-long/na-na-na beat (actually, there is literal ‘na-na-naing’), Sharkey brings sung welcoming to the project’s theme: “Gather round boys and girls! Hey, everybody!… Monster maker!” The statement? This ol’ twisted world itself is a monster maker. It seems to be an important message to these guys; because it’s repeated over and over at the end of the track (possibly annoying for the multilingual). According to Sharkey, “… everyone is capable of being that person that is sitting in the middle of bumper to bumper traffic for an hour one day and on the verge of going out and blasting people. Everyone has that seed in them where they’re capable of doing something monster-ish (babygrande.com).”

Hopefully, listening to this hot mess in your car will help you hold back your gun-toting road rage. If not, it’ll be the soundtrack to the massacre in your own personal horror film. Sharkey composes like a hip hop John Williams and conducts like 50 Cent on Vitamin Water, steering creeping violins and cellos on “Might She Shoot” and “Pain to the Picture” while incorporating chugging wind instruments on “Jumping off at the Jumpoff”. The latter tracks are two of C-Rayz’s strongest lyrically, despite the parallel that can be drawn between Walz’s “Jumpoff” and Lil’ Kim’s “Jumpoff”. If you didn’t know, Bacardi rhymes with party.

Speaking of partying, this album has its share of fun too. Monster isn’t entirely conceptual and eccentric. The Makers rock down to Electric Avenue on their cover of Eddy Grant’s 1983 classic. Sharkey lets most of the original sample do its thing, letting Walz put his spin on it. It seems as though Sharkey saved some of his inventiveness for later.

And therein lies the only problem with this release. The last few tracks; “Loss of Niche”, “The Moment Before Crazy” and “Slim Chances” provide an interesting (but not necessarily good) platform for Walz, Cannibal Ox’s Vast Aire, and Zooks to rhyme on. This hitting and missing should be expected, because it’s the chances Walz and his partner take that make Monster Maker so compelling. After working with Sharkey, C-Rayz called him the best producer he’s ever worked with, adding “He killed all those fuckin’ producers, he made a monster and now he’s here to bite everybody’s fuckin’ head off man (babygrande.com).” Studio rats and superproducers take note: Sharkey has arrived. You’re gonna need a bigger boat.

by Brian Meredith