Local Music Reviews
Boone
Next Best Tapes
Self-Released
Street: 06.26
Boone = Kid Cudi + Pink Floyd
No, Next Best Tapes is not the latest hip-hop release from frontiersman Daniel Boone (however interesting that might have been), but instead a solid premiere for the rising Huntsville artist, Boone. In Next Best Tapes, we find a rapper who is, above all, willing to take risks: lyrically, vocally and musically. Lyrically, the album runs the usual rap-gambit of bravado and deprecation of other (less talented) artists, but while walking on the well-trodden path, Boone allows us a revealing peek into the ultra-personal, which is similar to recent Mac Miller releases. Vocally, Boone is comparable to a more vocally astute ODB—sing-song rapping, trailing vocalizations, time-abandonment and the like. The accompaniment to each song—which ranges from the expected boom-bap to sweeping piano arrangements to (most surprisingly) noise-influenced psychedelic swarms—keeps even the weariest listener listening on. Boone’s Next Best Tapes has a natural beguile, an un-ignorable, distinctive excellence. –Z. Smith