soce, the elemental wizard
soce (pronounced SO-SAY), the elemental wizard, AKA socetew for short, has been performing all over New York City's formative downtown music scene for a while now, usually wearing his trademark wizard hat and pleasing crowds with smart, funny raps like "Aside from Boy Scouts I ain't never shot glocks... The worst thing that I could do is cock block!" His debut CD, "I Am In My Own World", is expertly crafted, musically intricate, and ultimately addictive hip hop with a street-smart urban sound-- yet his music also carries an original, deep, and often brilliant perspective underneath those hot beats. What can easily overshadow socetew's music skills is his bio. He's white, Jewish, openly gay, and Ivy League-educated. From the very first track "Feels Good", he wastes no time in establishing his, shall we say, "unique" niche:
'It's the Jewish, Gay, White MC,
You might envy my style, and my high energy.
Falling asleep is what people do at your show.
Calling a jeep is how they get to my promo."
In "I'm That", the second track, he continues:
"I'm that rapper that you make fun of, right?
I'm that rapper you can take in a fight.
I'm that rapper that you hate cuz I'm white.
I'm that rapper. I'm that rapper."
It may be too easy to label soce, the elemental wizard as a novelty. But there's absolutely NOTHING gimmicky about this guy... and any gimmicks or labels would fall flat if an artist didn't back up his image with his musical skills. Yes, he may occasionally make fun of his own persona, but don't think for a minute that socetew doesn't carry himself like a star all the way. You'd be hard-pressed to find a similarly young rising hip hop artist with greater sense of personal artistic style or clearer eye on his own musical agenda than socetew, which comes through in both his live shows and his CD's. On "I Am In My Own World", he delivers clever and occasionally self-indulgent rhymes from his own one-of-a-kind New York City boy perspective, often breaking new ground when he raps about stuff like gay male vanity and body obsession ("Wistful Breeze") and the drama of meeting Mr. Right ("State of Affairs"). He's not above rapping about some lusty desires, like on "H But H" ("He's hot but he's 'het'", with lyrics like: "Because he's hot, but he's heterosexual. Cut the bullcrap, cuz you phat, but I knew that. This cool cat is not selectable. He's like a vegetable; not flexible.") an instant classic that would have enough casual appeal to make it a radio favorite-- if mainstream hip hop stations only, 'scuse the expression, had the balls. Despite a few lighthearted verbal topedoes at the recording industry and a few shrewd observations about the state of hip hop music today ("Funny Feeling") , mostly the rapper takes a lighthearted journey through his own life-- musical aspirations, sex and love ("Not Wanted"), and life in general. Check out "Magnifying Glass":
"Individuality,
Has a very low salary,
It's often seen as a malady,
And that's a reality...
But you gotta give it a try,
You should never have to split the pie
Cause someday you could hit the fly,
Unless you'd rather just sit and sigh..."
In addition to rap, socetew shows off some greater vocal skills with tracks like the feverishly romantic "Broken Heart", adopting a soulful style of delivery which owes a bit more to old-style classic R&B than today's sounds. With some seriously smooth yet lively grooves in the background, the tracks are pretty astonishing-- something of an homage to '70's style funk and soul, even though we suspect that this artist would be too young to remember that era. Yes, he can rap AND he's got a singing voice. On much of "I Am In My Own World", he does both, layering the two vocal styles often in the same track-- like he does on "Not Wanted", "Be Mine", and "I Miss You". The first time I listened, I certainly didn't believe it was the same singer, until soce himself told me that he usually does ALL the vocals on his music. It ain't just socetew's words or voice that stand out on "I Am In My Own World". His brand of lyrical indulgence could be deadly for a hip hop artist if the music wasn't flawless. But in "I Am in My own World", the beats sound 10 years in the making. As soce, the elemental wizard raps and sings, state-of-the-art musical intricacies and special effects go off in the background. Even on a whimsical track like "Work/Play" ("I hate doing work, but I love playing games..."), the music takes on a well-crafted, multi-faceted effect.
Yeah, I know that I could go into a whole pseudo-sociological analysis on the significance of white rap stars in today's modern NYC music scene, but why bother? Great music is great music. So instead I'll sum up the intense appeal of "I Am In My Own World" with the first lyric that the star smoothly delivers on the opening track: "Because it feels good". Check out socetew's website, www.socetew.com or www.greathiphop.com. It's more than just soce's personal site... it's a multi-dimensional Xanadu for hip hop fans and music lovers of all varities. Be prepared to be spellbound...