Customer Reviews

Dying in Stereo

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

Here's me: I'm white. I'm 33. Suburban background, Master's degree. Rap and hip-hop never spoke to me, but Northern State's my Run-DMC.

The doggerel above isn't meant to suggest that Northern State is anything like as important or innovative as Run-DMC was, but instead to make the point that for at least one listener, they've served as a bridge into a genre that never appealed before. Don't get me wrong -- I have plenty of respect for hip-hop as a musical style, but lyrically, most of the rap songs I've heard in my life seemed, if not outright offensive or stupid, just concerned with things that I didn't much relate to. Then, listening to the BBC via Internet, I heard "At The Party." Hey, female rappers! Who aren't rapping about explicit sex! (Nothing against explicit sex, mind, but it gets a bit dull when every hip-hop woman seems primarily concerned with herself as an object of male desire.) Not only that, did I just hear that woman say her name is Hesta Prynn? As in, Hawthorne's Hester Prynn? This bears further investigation.

So I checked out Northern State's website, and learned that they're three feminist college graduates who go by the handles Hesta Prynn (yeah, after Hawthorne), DJ Sprout, and Guinea Love (who's now known instead by her last name, Spero). They formed a rap group for fun and have seen it take off, getting rave reviews from no less a music authority than Robert Christgau, among others. I checked out some of the song clips, and put Dying In Stereo on my Amazon wish list just for the heck of it. My wife bought it for me as a birthday present, and now I can't stop listening to this album. THIS is rap I can relate to -- it's not just funny but smart too, and set to beats that I'm just old enough to feel nostalgia for.

At first, Northern State comes on like the Go-Go's of rap (this is a high compliment), an all-girl band whose music is pure fun and appealing energy. But there's more than that here. Prynn frequently injects Shakespearean verses and cadences into her rhymes, and all three of them name-check the likes of Dorothy Parker, Wendell Berry, and Anton Chekhov. There's probably other rap out there that has this level of intellectual engagement, but I haven't heard it. Their lyrics are a refreshing mix of the serious and the silly, like the oft-cited "Keep choice legal / Your wardrobe regal / Chekhov wrote 'The Seagull' / And Snoopy is a beagle." Sometimes their rhymes can feel almost sublime: "I walk a path of resistance / You haven't tried yet / Connect, accept, forgive, forget / With every single breath you will dissolve yourself / Your birth, your name, your deeds, your death" is a lyric that practically paraphrases Buddha.

I've seen a lot of negative reviews for this album along with the positive ones, and the common thread that the pans seem to have is that they come from people who love current hip-hop. I read them, and they explain to me why I love Northern State. I could care less about who has the freshest beats, and half the hip-hop argot is opaque to me (I have no idea what Northern State is talking about when they sing "You can't fade me / My signal flow everywhere I go," though it sounds great.) Maybe if you love hip-hop as it is today, then Northern State might not be anything special to you -- they even be the opposite of what you're looking for. But for me, they're the first rappers I've heard who consistently have something interesting to say. Like the title of their first demo tape, they're hip-hop I haven't heard, and I'm glad they're here at last.

A bunch of Long Island girls busting ol' skool Beastie Boys style rap with pretty clever lyrics? It's fun, it's ridiculous and I get it. If you've got a sense of humor, dig License To Ill and are down with all things snotty - this is the bomb. For the rest of you, go buy Coldplay and Radiohead and whimper in the fetal position. Rap don't have to be all mad gangstas, y'all.

I am a lifelong music devotee, 41 years old, living in Idaho. I've never been much into hip hop, though, because it just didn't seem to have a lot of relevance to me. But after reading about Northern State in Entertainment Weekly, I ordered this CD, and I can hardly stop playing it. Any women who cite Wendell Berry and Dorothy Parker in their rhymes are fine by me. Northern State are literate, feminist, and politically charged, but they also sound like they're having a LOT of fun. I have a 9-year-old daughter, and while I will refrain from playing her this for a few more years due to some of the cussin' and adult themes, I'll probably present her the Northern State catalogue in a few years. For now, I'm enjoying it myself and spreading the word to every woman I know.

I use to be a big hip-hop fan, and when I first heard about this group I was very jaded. Hip Hop for me has been going down hill for the last 5 years. And when I listened to this album, I thought it was horrible. But I took a second listen, and it wasn't that bad. They're lyrics and rhyming need much work but, they're ambitious I like that. Also There style is very much reminiscent of some early Beastie Boys work. Most of all they are different from all other hip hop acts out there. Which will defiantly get them notice (I should know I work in the music industry). Good Luck Girls.

I saw this one store's commercial, calling Northern State the next big thing (that store chain is currently going out of business; I think you know what store I'm talking about). Anyway, Northern State consists of three twenty-something white female rappers, and they decided to show people what they got on their debut album (albeit an EP), Dying In Stereo.

I just want to explain right now what I mean by my review title. Now, I'm sure that the ladies aren't trying to be like the Beastie Boys or any other group, but if a casual listener heard this album, s/he might think that's exactly what they were doing. Because depending on how you look at it -- in other words, if you don't have an open mind -- this album could sound like it was made in 1986. But that's okay, because the rap style is pretty decent, especially in tracks like "At the Party" and the title track. The beats by resident DJ Robyn "Sprout" Goodmark aren't bad either.

So why only 3-1/2 stars? Well, a lot of the songs suffer from lazy choruses, especially "Signal Flow" and "Vicious Cycle". And the second verse in "A Thousand Words" isn't all that great either. Also, as much as I like the title track, I was slightly turned off when they said, "One step and then another and we're going with the flow/Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow". Oh well, I still think the ladies of Northern State can hold their own against the other members of the rap world.

Anthony Rupert

THIS ALBUM IS FAT....iM FROM STRONG ISLAND ALSO....LONG ISLAND HAS ALWAYS MAD TALENT ALWAYS IN HIP HOP...LOOK AT HISTORY....RAKIM.....EPMD...DE LA SOUL..KEITH MURRAY...BUSTA...ANYWAY THESE GIRLS ARE HOT...THEY ARE A DIFFERENT VIBE OF HIP HOP, I LIKE THE BEATS AND THE RYMES, ITS A REFRESHING RETURN TO WHEN HIP HOP WAS JUST DOPE. (I KNOW THAT IVE BEEN LISTENING SINCE 1980).NOT SO MUCH GLITTER AND CORNY COMERCIAL BEATS LIKE USUAL POP RAP OF TODAY..DEFINATELY 5 OUT OF 5 STARS FOR ME...HOPE TO HEAR MORE...KEEP ROCKIN AND REPRESENT GIRLS..REPRESENT

There really is no way possible, using words available in the English language, to describe how disgusting, appalling, and unintentionally funny this album is. The lyrics are so poor, pedestrian, and silly that one listen inspires out-loud laughter. The beats are so lame and lifeless; they sound like those millions of hip-hop ripoff wanna-be 12" records that came out during the early years trying to capitalize on "Beat Street"-era hip-hop. In fact, come to think of it, these (ahem) "ladies" probably got their start watching videos of Tina B "rockin' to the rhythm of the vicious beat" on that god-awful movie screen, waiting for Ramo to get electrocuted on the third rail so they could cry on their boyfriend's shoulder in the theater. There is that much pent-up pain and social malaise in their lyrics.

Northern State are a fourth-generation version of pseudo-fly-girl mall-rat clones, desperately trying to look hip hop in their fake Cazals and personalized belt buckles while their b-boyfriends uprocked against each other in the Food Court. They have absolutely nothing to say, their logo is wack, their album exists because they have industry connections, their delivery is embarassing and weak, their beats are sad, and the fact that we are even talking about this only serves to underscore what passes for music in this country, where William Hung gets a record deal and a million worthy musicians make do otherwise and don't really give a flip. "Fresh, fresh, fresh... yo, that's fresh!"

I like hip-hop, and love girl groups so I should be big fans of these guys. I thought they would be like Sleater Kinney doing rap... In fact, I was very disappointed.

This is 80s-era beastie boys rap done by women. The beats and delivery and mediocre to bad, and the lyrics are insipid. There is no real content -- all the songs are about how 'bad' they are with some pseudo intellectual references thrown in.

I've just read 3 bad reviews for this CD and 2 good ones, I'm guess I'm gonna even it all out. I love Northern State. They are amazing lyricists. Some of the most insightful and intelligent lyrics in modern hip hop are on this CD. If you are tired to the bone of hearing Snoop Dogg and 50 Cent boasting about being 'P.I.M.P's then buy this. Hip hop, what hip hop is supposed to sound like, even if they are white. They are intelligent, funny and talented. Keep rockin girls.

Now I am a person who listens to hardcore rap, undaground music, including a lil bit of rnb and so forth. I will admit, when I start listening to Northern State, I wasn't feeling them at all. But when I couldn't think of any other cd to play, I played this cd, and all of a sudden I loved it. So to folks that making crazy comments and not giving their music a second chance AT LEAST, stop and really focus on listening to it again and see how you feel about it. But on the real is this truely a classic? No, but it's not terrible either. It's in between, something you can listen to if you're in a happy mood. Now for those that really haven't listen to Northern State like that, I suggest start with this album, and then decide whether or not you want to cop All City (I even have their first cd, Hip Hop You Haven't Heard; that came out before Dyin In Stereo). Consequently, this is music very different from nowadays music, well most of them, which is coming out now with a lot of bull ishh. So if you want somethin different start with this cd, because it's all about having fun with hip hop and not about killin and having sex.