Lost in the Woods Review from Confront Magazine....

Mic Boyd: Lost In The Woods

Normally, I’m not one for rap.  At least, not the tired tripe that’s passed itself off as the real deal for the last decade or so.  So when I was asked to review a rap CD by one Mic Boyd, kid brother of Canadian rapper Classified, I was more than a little leery.

My first impression when I received the CD and press info was to wonder what a Scottish kid from the province of Nova Scotia could possibly bring to a musical genre that is synonymous with Black Urban youth culture?

I was surprised by what I heard.

Boyd’s debut CD plays like an homage to the golden era of rap: the Death Row days.  The music has that Gangsta feel, without the pretence one associates with the pre-packaged commercialized MTV-friendly Hip-Hop that we’ve been steadily spoon fed for most of the last ten years.  His tracks are fresh, while still managing to capture the rhythms and jive of a bygone era.  

Though I could have done without the "Intro", "Interlude" and "Outro" spoken-word bookends, most of the rest of the CD is truly enjoyable.  The only tracks I truly disliked were "A Good Day", which is an ode to pot-headed behaviour and "Michael’s Mystery", a rather lame attempt at a Scooby-Doo parody, which left me wondering why it made the cut.

The rest of the CD has some real gems: the Old School, funk-sampling "Guess Who’s Back" sounds and feels like classic Dr Dre; the battle-ready "Get Me Started" is a statement of Boyd’s skill which manages to avoid falling into the self-aggrandizement trap that kills so many songs of this style.  

On "Too Hard" Boyd addresses the aforementioned issue of him being a White kid from the Maritimes, summing up very effectively not only why Rap is popular with his demographic, but why he should be taken seriously as a rapper.  It is a passionate, earnest track; one which demonstrates far more love, respect and passion for Rap music than a lot of stuff being churned out by the current crop of big-studio so-called rappers, that have alienated so many from the genre.

If you’ve lost faith in Rap music, if you want to listen to something that reminds you of the passion, intensity and even the carefree foolhardiness of the old-school, while still managing to be fresh, relevant and without artifice, I wholeheartedly recommend Mic Boyd.

Mic Boyd: Lost In The Woods
HalfLife Records
Steve’s Rating: 9/10

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