Doppelgangaz – Peace Kehd

Album Review by Bram E. Gieben | 21 Feb 2014
Album title: Peace Kehd
Artist: Doppelgangaz
Label: Self-released
Release date: 17 Feb

With a lunatic bio that won't stop talking about brothels and the "black cloak lifestyle" (seems to involve wearing, um, black cloaks), Orange County, NY duo Doppelgangaz live up to more than a few of the cliches associated with underground rappers.

There's the preponderance for stoner humour; lyrics as peppered with flashes of horrorcore comic book violence and sex pest banter as they are with dense wordplay; and their lo-fi videos shot in the backyards of suburban-wasteland homes. They are elevated first of all by their production. Their dusty funk loops, pops and clicks, muted pianos reminiscent of early RZA, and a solid, head-nodding kick and snare on nearly every track offer few dull moments. They experiment too, rocking a double-time, Southern hip-hop-influenced beat on lead single Come Down Awn Eht.

Matter Ov Fact and EP also deliver on the lyrical front – theirs is a free associative, storytelling style no doubt born of long years of practice and study of the 90s alternative hip-hop boom, but unlike many other rappers who fetishise hip-hop's Silver Age, it's rare these emcees let their influences show. Both have an engaging, laid back flow, and a way with dark humour and complex vocabulary.

The only drawback on that front is an excess of borderline misogyny on more than one track – but arguably that's a problem endemic to hip-hop, rather than specific to them, even if it's a deal-breaker for some listeners. With admirable quality control, and coming from a DIY, self-contained and self-sufficient unit, the standout moments of Peace Kehd could compete with the best of them - proof, perhaps, given that this is Doppelgangaz fourth album, that persistence and a dedication to your craft is at least half the battle for an artist struggling to be noticed in an increasingly saturated market.

http://thedoppelgangaz.com