K-Os “Joyful Rebellion”
K-OS Joyful Rebellion Inpress Magazine September 2005
K-OS Joyful Rebellion
By Mawuse Ziegbe
What to say about an album as loopworthy as The Joyful Rebellion except if you don’t own it you are depriving yourself of some the most innovative music to brand itself hip hop in a long time.
Let’s call Rebellion hip hop for the sake of simplicity because K-OS beautifully ropes in so many genres but manages not to sound reckless. The album is ably controlled, splicing together bits of dub, rock and folk while maintaining its hip hop sensibilities. “Crucial” layers K-OS’ melodic vocals over an energetic mix of dub and rock guitars. Jump to “Crabbuckit” and you’ve got foot-stompin,’ hand-clappin,’ backwoodz jook-joint party-like-it’s-1922 madness complete with blaring horns and a stinging piano. But then he comes back with the amped-up, old-skool cacophony of scratches and samples “B-Boy Stance” just in case you tried to sleep on his hip hop roots.
K-OS is easily as comfortable flippin’ his vocal skills as he is blending a myriad of musical influences. “The Love Song” is straight lyrical flow: “Metaphysical microscopic topic dropper/ When I was a kid I wanted rollerskates and a bike chopper.” K-OS’ cleverly idiosyncratic rhyme style sounds like we caught him in the freestyle zone. Yet he is not desperately married to the rhyme format as his voice wafts dreamily on the stirring acoustic social ballad “Hallelujah.” Unlike certain hip hop artists who growl in lieu of singing (Hi Nelly, Ja Rule) K-OS is actually a very capable singer with a vulnerability to his voice that makes cuts like “Dirty Water” captivating. But of course, Rebellion has some flaws. Mostly stupid things like the lyrics aren’t printed in the liner notes and the packaging is an irritating shade of ochre. Although tracks like “Emcee Murdah” and “One Hood” are not especially compelling.
However let’s not have you leave thinking K-OS is this magical hip hop hippie who lights his incense, does yoga, drops an album and prays for world peace. To be sure he does all of that but he still has a healthy party-boy attitude under all the insight that makes him even more relatable. K-OS’ awareness of hip hop as music engenders his creativity as he says in his own words: “In a battle between form and style, form will always remain victorious in underground circles – no doubt.”
