Last summer I randomly hit up RA with a batch of beats to see if he was
interested in anything. He had just released one of 2013's heavy rotation classics, "Adding to the Extra" with Todd Sykes, and wrote back saying he was currently working
on a project that was going to be out in the fall that was blowing his mind. I honestly was shocked that he was not only already working on another LP, but going to be releasing it shortly while I was still pumping "Adding to the Extra" in my car. November came and RA released "The Sickle & The Sword" with Rodney Hazard. I wanted to go to the release party, but was unable and before I knew it... RA posted on Facebook that the two had parted ways due to what Q-tip coined as "Rule 4080". Contracts, lawyers and all the bullshit in the middle made what RA referred to as the best project he worked on since "Tobacco Road", shelved, buried and pulled from all major online retailers. In a last moment act of defiance, RA offered the entire project up for free from his website and honestly that's the only reason I was able to get my digital hands on it.
It was rather bittersweet. On one side, RA was getting more publicity and pulling a larger audience from the drama that unfolded, but on the other side his work was left in a pseudo limbo. Should he abandon the project or move on?
RA decided to take the lemons life gave him and "paint that shit gold." He took to social media and allowed people to remix the tracks to the album. Quickly, he received submissions from numerous beatmakers, but would he be able to construct a cohesive album that would rival "Sword"? In the past, remix albums have had a tendency to fall flat compared to their source material as they fail to capture the true feeling and vibe of the original song or album.
The true art of a remix is to capture what was in the original song, make it your own and make it something new, refreshing or better. When Pete Rock remixed "Shut 'Em Down", he was able to take an already dope Public Enemy song and turn it into a platform/statement that HE had arrived on the scene.
This obviously was something that was at the heart of RA's thinking when deciding what his next move was. Traditionally working with one producer on each project, he needed to find an artist that was able to share his vision and rework "Sword" into a "Sharper Tool; Bigger Weapon." Enter Vox Mod.
Now... although you could technically call this album a remix, it's more a reworking. This is something different... re-imagined, redeveloped and reshaped.
Before I was going to sit down and write out my review on this album, I wanted to give it a proper listen. So, for my morning commute I decided that I wanted to listen to "Sword" & "Weapon" side by side. I left for work in the early morning as the original album painted the dark sound scape while I drove into the darkness. It was a dope album... I'm not going to lie. RA had a GOOD reason to think he made a great album because IT WAS and IS a great album. But as it finished and "Weapon" started, dawn broke. As the remaining miles of my daily journey were finally greeted with light, so was RA's album. Vox Mod's production built a lighter, fuller sound that seemed to give it the soul it needed to carry RA's message.
As I sat there, in my last few minutes of my commute, pulling up to work, I thought of how that observation was the perfect metaphor for RA's experience with this album. Through the darkness of this experience, he was able to come out on the other side and greet the light with a re-imagined work. It truly is a "Sharper Weapon; Bigger Tool."
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"Sharper Weapon; Bigger Tool" will be available March 18th.
www.rascion.com
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