On Tim Fite’s second full length LP “Over The Counter Culture,” gone are the earthy, slacker- folk rap, G Love meets Beck, tunes of yore… (aka Fite’s debut LP Gone Ain’t Gone.) The quirky freewheeling Brooklynite has moved on from the previous alt-county meets off -kilter rap, kitchen sink attitudes and evolved into an angrier, darker, and more critically cynical hip-hopper. Makes one wonder, what could have happened to our boy Fite after his first major outing? “Over The Counter Culture” is Fite’s revilement for the hyper-commercialized rap game, the greedy consumer culture Americana, and the preposterousness of the current US state of affairs set on wax. With Fite’s acrimonious rhymes laid down over bedroom produced, off- the- wall samples and beats.
Fite’s brand of lo-fi macabre rap is delivered amidst cleverly unorthodox samples. Haunting lead off track “Place Your Bets” is a prime example; Fite tells a ghoulish cautionary tale of gambling sessions, done over an eerie bassline ripped right from Freddy Kruger’s last axe massacre. Perhaps Fite is trying to revive the old ‘horrocore’ movement? (God Forbid) “And How” , another whacked and spooky number, begins with tribal congas and discordant clarinet sounding synthesizers under Fite’s nonsensical rhymes about earwigs being passed off as beers, and militant moms- “My Mother and you mother were hanging out, my mother punched your mother in her nose, all the blood came out”
Odd as this may sound, Fite’s delivery can at times, bear a strong resemblance to another B-Boy hopeful, Jaime Kennedy. Granted, Fite’s production is much grittier and his rhymes hit harder than Kennedy’s slap-stick shtick, but work with me here. When Fite isn’t trying to throw down those obtuse lyrics about bugs coming out of ears, he can be straight –up, sidesplitting hilarious. Case in point “I’ve Been Shot”, where Fite satirically raps- “If I hadn’t been shot, I would’ve never gotten laid, would’ve never got signed, would’ve never got paid”...All the best rappers get shot by guns” It’s an ingenious shot at the 50 cents of the world who profiteer from their bullet wounds. Then there is sardonic “Camouflage” where body bags are juxtaposed as the in-fashion must for the season. And, lest we forget tongue-in-cheek- “Soup of the Day” where Fite lumps Monostat 7, Hamburger Helper, and Kanye West all together.
Let’s face it, with rhymes like- “the crime is not a government, a crime is just a crime” Tim Fite is definitely not the next Jay –Z. Nor does he want to be though; Fite prove his earnestness by offering “Over the Counter Culture” free on his site. Fite’s abuse of poetic license will have Rap loyalist sneering though. Perhaps Fite is too much of a scofflaw to be taking seriously by the Hip-Hop community (ironic don’t you think?). I wouldn’t recommend this album to die hard Nas enthusiast. Those individuals who don’t take their hip-hop quite so seriously on the other hand, are bound to thoroughly enjoy this eccentric offering. |