Sole - Selling live water

One of my personal favorites. top 20 favorite album. no one has a style like sole. He's angry, he's pissed off, he's venting, and he doesn't even care if he isn't rhyming sometimes

Wow. Never thought I'd see props for this album around here. My buddy has it and I've heard it about 5-10 times. He was a huge fan...I think it may have been his favorite. Me? Not my favorite Sole album, but definitely the 3rd best I've heard from him. Personally, I don't feel he would/could/will ever top "Bottle Of Humans" - personally a classic, or damn near. "Learning To Walk" (a collection of his earlier recordings) would have to be my #2 from Sole. To be honest, those are the only two from Sole I've bumped in years.

Bottle of Humans lacks delivery (in particular, energy). He doesn't sound angry enough on that album, and the way it was mastered or mixed his voice isn't clear enough. imo.

AndrewK wrote:

Bottle of Humans lacks delivery (in particular, energy). He doesn't sound angry enough on that album, and the way it was mastered or mixed his voice isn't clear enough. imo.

Not angry enough? Lacks delivery/energy? I disagree...

IMO, Bottle Of Humans is by far the most classic Anticon record ever recorded. While I only dig early Anticon, I can't imagine a finer example than founder's debut album.

My favorites:
"Dismantling of Soles Ego"
"Famous Last Words" (my favorite - lacks energy? come on)
"Center City" featuring Why?
"Suicide Song"
"MC Howard Hughes"
"Sole Has Issues"

Damn, it always pissed me off that Anticon did not pursue this type of direction as a whole. Instead we got a lot more lame abstract shit.

Everytime i see the name Sole I think of the female rapper of the same name. Back in the Amazon days I use think damn they must really dig her...lol.

My favorite track off of this album is Sebago. I still haven't really gotten used to Sole's style, but the production is constantly interesting.

Half likes Sole? Crazy....

Have you heard Bottle Of Humans? If you have not and plan to listen to some Sole, make that the one. I don't mean to discount Andrew's opinion, but it's quite a bit better IMO. I mean, read some reviews....it's unanimous.

Shit, read my review I wrote like 6 years ago....lol...

4.0 out of 5 stars
The heart and sole of Anticon ... 4.5 Stars, April 29, 2005
By Alan Pounds "Minnesota Hip-Hop Fiend" (Minneapolis, MN)

"I've got a thousand ways to say nothing," Sole yells out in the album opener. I can't help but connect that phrase to most of the artists on Anticon. They bring something new and totally unconventional to the table, that scares a lot of people away; including myself. But Sole, founder of Anticon, is definitely the cream of the crop as far as the Anticon label is concerned. When listening to artists such as Pedestrian, or Dose-One, the lyrics are ridiculously incomprehensible; you have to wonder if the artist even knows what their talking about. Sole is much different in that respect. He actually raps about his life, feelings, and things he's familiar with. He flows with a lot of anger, pain, desire and feeling. It's all wrapped up in a dark autobiography. His tone is varied in overwhelming earnest self-deprecation. Sole has a lot of ideas though, and they are laid out quite nicely this epic 73-minute album.

"Dismantling of Soles Ego" kicks off the album nicely with one of many interesting concepts. "I don't rap on bumper stickers, I'm witty with 40-liners" Sole yells out on the second cut. My favorite track as got to be the tongue twisting darkness of "Famous Last Words". "Center City" featuring Why? is also one of my favorites; but like Dose-One, I wouldn't be to interested to hear a whole Why? album. Other highlights include "Suicide Song" and "MC Howard Hughes".

Sole has combined the strange, minimalist darkness that Anticon is known for, with his accessible charismatic personality. Personally, I wish Anticon would wake up and start releasing more albums like this, instead of working the artsy, "I'm the weirdest rapper out there" angle. It also helps that Sole's voice isn't suffering from helium inhalation.

Alan wrote:

Half likes Sole? Crazy....

Have you heard Bottle Of Humans? If you have not and plan to listen to some Sole, make that the one. I don't mean to discount Andrew's opinion, but it's quite a bit better IMO. I mean, read some reviews....it's unanimous.

Shit, read my review I wrote like 6 years ago....lol...

4.0 out of 5 stars
The heart and sole of Anticon ... 4.5 Stars, April 29, 2005
By Alan Pounds "Minnesota Hip-Hop Fiend" (Minneapolis, MN)

"I've got a thousand ways to say nothing," Sole yells out in the album opener. I can't help but connect that phrase to most of the artists on Anticon. They bring something new and totally unconventional to the table, that scares a lot of people away; including myself. But Sole, founder of Anticon, is definitely the cream of the crop as far as the Anticon label is concerned. When listening to artists such as Pedestrian, or Dose-One, the lyrics are ridiculously incomprehensible; you have to wonder if the artist even knows what their talking about. Sole is much different in that respect. He actually raps about his life, feelings, and things he's familiar with. He flows with a lot of anger, pain, desire and feeling. It's all wrapped up in a dark autobiography. His tone is varied in overwhelming earnest self-deprecation. Sole has a lot of ideas though, and they are laid out quite nicely this epic 73-minute album.

"Dismantling of Soles Ego" kicks off the album nicely with one of many interesting concepts. "I don't rap on bumper stickers, I'm witty with 40-liners" Sole yells out on the second cut. My favorite track as got to be the tongue twisting darkness of "Famous Last Words". "Center City" featuring Why? is also one of my favorites; but like Dose-One, I wouldn't be to interested to hear a whole Why? album. Other highlights include "Suicide Song" and "MC Howard Hughes".

Sole has combined the strange, minimalist darkness that Anticon is known for, with his accessible charismatic personality. Personally, I wish Anticon would wake up and start releasing more albums like this, instead of working the artsy, "I'm the weirdest rapper out there" angle. It also helps that Sole's voice isn't suffering from helium inhalation.

I haven't listened to Bottle of Humans. Your review was pretty informative so I plan to check that out soon. Jeff rec'd it to me back in the day (he rec'd me this album as well), I just never got around to it. On a sort of related note, what are your thoughts on cLOUDDEAD's first album? I still really like that one. The sequel was pretty weak though.

Half wrote:

Alan wrote:

Half likes Sole? Crazy....

Have you heard Bottle Of Humans? If you have not and plan to listen to some Sole, make that the one. I don't mean to discount Andrew's opinion, but it's quite a bit better IMO. I mean, read some reviews....it's unanimous.

Shit, read my review I wrote like 6 years ago....lol...

4.0 out of 5 stars
The heart and sole of Anticon ... 4.5 Stars, April 29, 2005
By Alan Pounds "Minnesota Hip-Hop Fiend" (Minneapolis, MN)

"I've got a thousand ways to say nothing," Sole yells out in the album opener. I can't help but connect that phrase to most of the artists on Anticon. They bring something new and totally unconventional to the table, that scares a lot of people away; including myself. But Sole, founder of Anticon, is definitely the cream of the crop as far as the Anticon label is concerned. When listening to artists such as Pedestrian, or Dose-One, the lyrics are ridiculously incomprehensible; you have to wonder if the artist even knows what their talking about. Sole is much different in that respect. He actually raps about his life, feelings, and things he's familiar with. He flows with a lot of anger, pain, desire and feeling. It's all wrapped up in a dark autobiography. His tone is varied in overwhelming earnest self-deprecation. Sole has a lot of ideas though, and they are laid out quite nicely this epic 73-minute album.

"Dismantling of Soles Ego" kicks off the album nicely with one of many interesting concepts. "I don't rap on bumper stickers, I'm witty with 40-liners" Sole yells out on the second cut. My favorite track as got to be the tongue twisting darkness of "Famous Last Words". "Center City" featuring Why? is also one of my favorites; but like Dose-One, I wouldn't be to interested to hear a whole Why? album. Other highlights include "Suicide Song" and "MC Howard Hughes".

Sole has combined the strange, minimalist darkness that Anticon is known for, with his accessible charismatic personality. Personally, I wish Anticon would wake up and start releasing more albums like this, instead of working the artsy, "I'm the weirdest rapper out there" angle. It also helps that Sole's voice isn't suffering from helium inhalation.

I haven't listened to Bottle of Humans. Your review was pretty informative so I plan to check that out soon. Jeff rec'd it to me back in the day (he rec'd me this album as well), I just never got around to it. On a sort of related note, what are your thoughts on cLOUDDEAD's first album? I still really like that one. The sequel was pretty weak though.

Actually, I have not heard cLOADDEAD's debut. I have however heard their second album "Ten", which I felt was totally unlistenable. I hear the debut is better, but that duo just sort of scares me...lol.

cLOUDDEAD is much different from Ten. It has much less rapping. I'd say about half of the album is just ambient music or some Boards of Canada type shit. The other half of the album is crazy rapping but for some reason I can listen to Dose on this album, whereas on the Deep Puddle Dynamics album he really gets on my nerves.

And damn, that second to last sentence of my review totally sums up my thoughts on Anticon as a whole. Why Anticon? Why couldn't they have pursued this direction?!

Half wrote:

cLOUDDEAD is much different from Ten. It has much less rapping. I'd say about half of the album is just ambient music or some Boards of Canada type shit. The other half of the album is crazy rapping but for some reason I can listen to Dose on this album, whereas on the Deep Puddle Dynamics album he really gets on my nerves.

Indeed. I've heard that about cLOUDDEAD and never really checked it out for that reason. Just didn't sound like my cup of tea. Now that Deep Puddle Dynamics album is a dope album IMO. Along the lines of the Anticon sound I like. However, I agree Dose does hurt the album overall; but at the same time, he gave the album such a unique feel. Definitely some winners on that album.