Phame, Chapter Four Verse 15

Phame is a rapper from San Francisco. His delivery is dense and staccato — he squeezes lots of words into each phrase, and each syllable is precisely placed. While the rhythm of the words sounds spontaneous, however, his delivery of the words themselves can be limited — he raps them all the same way, which ends up sounding a little flat. He writes in an intelligent mode, like Common or Tribe, and tries to tackle serious subjects, but his lyrics aren’t particularly interesting. It’s too bad, because on Chapter Four Verse 15, some of the beats are kind of cool, and yet he ultimately doesn’t do anything to match.

“Remember My Name” is a good one — it has a catchy beat with a nice female vocal line. It sounds a little like a lower-budget Rjd2 or something. Give producer Genessee props for this one! The rap is rhythmically well done — he uses occasional double-times and clusters of syllables in an interesting way, and the flow has a lot of life to it — but the lyrics aren’t that inspired, just a lot of standard boasting with no memorable lines. And the lyric hook is decent, but not totally inspired.

“De la Cuna, Hasta la Tumba” has a nice Latin-sounding acoustic guitar sample, and the rapping again sounds good, although since it’s in Spanish, I don’t know what he’s saying. The rapping isn’t as virtuosic, but it still works with the rest of the song. Since the translation that they provide is “From the Cradle to the Grave,” I can only assume that it’s something thoughtful (or trying to be, anyway). But I wouldn’t assume that they’re any better than on the rest of the album. The hook uses another beautiful folky-sounding vocal sample.

“I Love Hip-Hop” is a shoutout to Phame’s favorite hip-hip groups. It’s backed by an energetic beat, and the rapping gives it more of an old-school feel. Despite that, though, Phame never sounds like he’s really having fun, and when he’s talking about something that he loves, he should sound like he’s really into what he’s rapping about. The lyrics are moderately clever, but again, they don’t knock you out.

Phame still needs to work on some of the details. Over the course of the album, the flatness of his voice gets pretty monotonous. If there were any interesting lyrics to catch the ear, it might not be as much of a problem, but he doesn’t give you much to listen to in that department. If you listen to delivery and beats more than words, you may enjoy this album, but otherwise, it’s a pass.