It usually takes me a couple of days after Labor Day weekend to reset my brain and get back on the grind. Thinking about the history of struggle for survival and dignity in this country and how hostile, sour, and fucking deadly it has been for the people who dare speak up about the conditions they are expected to live under gets be a little worked up... every dang time. Labor Day is a day when I spend more time than usual contemplating these things (especially since the real Labor Day has been dragged down and replaced with some brain-wormed holiday dubbed "Loyalty Day" in the US- No. Thank. You.) And when it comes to music for working people- music that speaks to working class issues- folk in fine, but if you want to get the feelings and the facts right, you need to turn up some hip hop. There really isn't a more direct form of musical expression out there, and if you want to hit the bedrock of human experience, it pays to be direct.
Bambu's Sharpest Tool in The Shed, dropped last year, but it's still extremely relevant... and probably will be for the foreseeable future. Set against the backdrop of the 2020 summer uprising for black lives, the LA MC describes in startling and lyrical detail the ways that banks and real estate investors loot neighborhoods through gentrification, the methods by which police act like an occupying force in segregated neighborhoods throughout urban centers, the coercion that guides and defines the choices and circumstances of so many lives, the parallels between prisons and public schools, and intolerability of ongoing apartheids- both in the US and abroad. Bambu's flow really pops throughout, landing lines like left hooks- striking out against the false narratives and consciousnesses that define what is and isn't politically and theoretically possible. It's very cool to hear straight fire, spit from Bambu's jaws like sparks from a furnace- skipping and skimming atop classic jazz samples and crisp, confident grooves. Every track sounds like a battle in a war that Bambu has been preparing to fight his whole life. I wouldn't call it a performance, but a prosecution of the justifications for an unjustifiable state of affairs. These are dope tunes, addressed to a distressed and daunting world.
And if you listen to Sharpest Tool in The Shed and don't think what he is talking about are working-class issues, then you need to ask yourself- who do you think a working class person is? Is it a dues-paying union member who works in a factory? Is it someone who drives a car for a ride-share company? What about someone who delivers burgers or pizzas through Postmates? Is it the dishwasher who works in the restaurant that made that those burgers and pizzas- the line cook, the server, the bus person, the host? What about someone who comes the US from another country to work, with or without a VISA- who possibly sends money back to their family on the other side of the border? What about the person who is unemployed- someone who can't find work, or who is incapable of working due to disability or other mitigating factors? How about the person holding out the empty Burger King cup, who stands in the middle of the road near stoplights and asks people in passing cars for change? What about just anyone who has to work for a wage in order to justify their existence? I'm going to stop burying the lead- these are all working class people, leading working class lives. And nothing in this world is going to change until they realize that they share more in common with each other than they've been lead to believe.
Get a copy of Sharpest Tool In The Shed from Beatrock Music here.
