Let me be blunt: everybody in pop and rap music… and their brother, their sister, their mother, cousin and pal… is on this record. David Byrne, Chuck D, Method Man, Ghostface Killah and Rza from the Wu-Tang Clan, Tom Waits, Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Del, MIA, Santogold, KRS-One and more.
And it’s all to the good.
N.A.S.A. stands for “North America/South America,” and is the musical brainchild of US producer Squeak E. Clean and Brasilian DJ Zegon. They use Brasilian tropicalia funk as a jumping-off point, but keep everything firmly rooted in hip-hop. And while, on the surface, some of the pairings may look odd, things comes off as surprisingly natural.
“The People Tree” opens things with a straight-ahead guitar groove, as Chali 2na and Gift of Gab swap rhymes and pop singer David Byrne supplies an off-kilter chorus. “Money” kicks the guitars into full-on James Brown mode, with Public Enemy album Chuck D spitting political rhymes and Byrne joining Jamaica’s Ras Congo on the chorus.
Even Wu-Tang’s ODB, deceased for more than five years now, makes an appearance on the crunchy guitars of “Strange Enough.” Kanye West drops in to up the tempo on “Gifted,” (which, incidentally, is way better than anything on 808s & Heartbreak), and in the album’s most out-there pairing, vaudeville jazz monster Tom Waits growls the chorus of “Spacious Thoughts” while the only rapper who can match him in the abstract-lyrics department, Kool Keith, supplies the verses.
The guest MCs all do their thing and fit right in with most of the wide sonic palette on Spirit of Apollo. In fact, it’s when Squeak and Zegon try to hew closer to traditional hip-hop that things start to get a bit flat.
Most of the way through, it’s a bouncy party-starter of a record, and with more guest stars than a whole season of “Saturday Night Live,” it’s got something for just about everyone.
Spirit of Apollo will be released on Feb. 17. For more information, visit Amazon.com.
