VARIOUS ARTISTS
Uddy Proje (Efeler Entertainment)
Reviewed by Holly Day

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This is an amazingly ambitious compilation of rap music coming from the Turkish community in Germany. At this point in my life, I'm barely interested in rap, because so much of it coming from the U.S. sounds pointlessly derivative, but this is so refreshing beautiful that it made me bring out some of my old rap records to compare those old school styles with the music on this disc. I think what I don't like about much new rap music is that the gritty heart of it is gone, the honesty and desperation replaced by the transparent desire to sell and buy fancy tennis shoes and point toy guns at naked women - these tracks all have that heart and honesty, and each song on here stands apart from the other because the performers are (I think) actually trying to say something. I could be wrong about this, because I don't actually speak Turkish and have no idea what these songs are truly about. But I like that, too - the rhythm of the German-accented Turkish language barely fits inside the traditional confines of American rap/hip hop rhythm and texture, leaving the performers forced to chant long strings of consonants and vowels for nearly the length of the song, without taking an audible pause for breath. The music is wonderful, too - elements of German techno are present throughout this, as is the occasional 12-stringed instrument and forays into that tonal scale. Outstanding tracks (and it's hard to pick which one's the best out of the 19 provided here) include Inceefe's ominous-sounding opening track, "Uddy Bir Birikim," Azra's dreamy and evocative "Sokaklar," and Statik's "Hayat Birdir," featuring some really cool scratching and spooky, atonal samples. I'm guessing from the packaging of this disc that this is a relatively new label -- I wish them all the best of luck in releasing more material like this, and I hope that when they do, they send it this way.

[Pick this up at www.uddy.net.]

© 2003 - Holly Day