Carl Sandburg Visits Me In A Dream

You’re born in Toronto to Trinidadian Jehovah’s Witness parents; your life is bound to be interesting by chance. k-os’s life journey is certainly worth your time, but I won’t divulge it all here. From Joyful Rebellion to Atlantis: Hymns for Disco, I’ve been a big fan of Canada’s finest hip-hop artist k-os. He was accessible, erudite, and had knack for great beats.  I had good reason to come into his latest LP Yes! with great expectations, but I ultimately ended up coming away from the album with a big ‘no’. Yes! is k-os’s most esoteric work to date, and while that doesn’t always have to be a bad thing, it is in this case. The silky smooth rhymes, the wonderfully infectious rhythms–where did they go?

The one thing I’ll give k-os is that the content of his music hasn’t lost a step. On the pensive wah-wahs of “The Aviator”, he sings “Watchin’ how time can turn enemies into friends / and friends to enemies / why did he envy me? / is it because I emceed breakin’ in social scenes?” That sense of paranoia/perceived hostility continues on the self-explanatory “Burning Bridges”, but the wordplay is still as fresh as ever: “Cause the left hand knows what you’re doin’ with your right / when the right hand glows left is jealous of the light / so you put ‘em both together and you pray for your life-time.” He confesses that he doesn’t care that he’s burning bridges, and I’m entirely sure if he’s talking to his critics or his listeners or neither. The comically titled “I Wish I Knew Natalie Portman” expresses a sentiment that it seems many have lately. And if the beginning of “Zambony” isn’t a perfect insight into the mind of k-os, then nothing is: “Do you have any idea of the chaos you have caused around here? Nobody knows what you’re doing?……That’s exactly the way I like it.”

Buy a copy of k-os’s Yes!.

Listen to “Burning Bridges”

Listen to “I Wish I Knew Natalie Portman“