Sup The Chemist

Item: Dust
Author: Tommy Jolly

Dust

(2000)

Reviewed by Tommy Jolly

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Label BEC Recordings / Uprok RecordsThe Phantom Tollbooth2000

experimental hip hop rap rap rock

It's thrilling to see that Sup the Chemist (formerly Super C) has finally found a new label and released a new album. As leader of the pioneering Christian hip-hop act SFC, Sup produced a series of innovative and thought-provoking albums in the early 1990s. This climaxed in 1992 with Phase III, an album that still ranks among the finest Christian albums of the past decade--this despite the fact that the ruling ranks of the industry were uninterested in (or afraid of?) marketing rap music.

Although not being released with much fanfare, Sup's new release, Dust, is one project that no one should overlook. While an earlier album like A Saved Man (in the Jungle) had a few obvious samples and the occasional stilted delivery, Dust is a nearly flawless release overflowing with rhymes and beats that can only be the work of a greatly matured artist. Sup's greatest strengths are his plays on conventional meter and rhyme schemes (the result, no doubt, of a decade's hard work) and his underground production style, which far surpasses any budget limitations.

The lyrics are hard to quote here, not only because they are not in the CD booklet, but also because the delivery is so frenetic and unpredictable that it's a challenge to keep up. One song that seems to explain his reasoning is "Walls":

Now he feels he's done it
So he's going public
Integrating the mainstream
Replacing redundant moralist writers
By denigrating their ciphers
His idiomatic expressions
Put him in a category of his own inflection
Exiled like the X-Men
Because his writings make one have to think to
comprehend.

The song gets weirder from there, but it's a solid presentation and defense of his faith, work ethic, and aesthetic all integrated into one. On this track and many others ("Art," "Fresh Coast," and "Venality," to name a few) Sup demands--and gets--the listener's attention. This CD marks the welcome return of the closest thing to a legend Christian hip-hop has. Hopefully, no one will ignore him this time.

4 tocks