Prince Ea – Backwards Rappers

The best rap and hip-hop, to me at least, has always been those songs that take you on a journey and tell you a story. More than any other genre, the spoken word origins of rap lent itself to the type of lyrical complexity and juxtaposition that could only come from the voice being the singular most-focused instrument. In that way, it has always been an incredibly powerful genre to me – able to transform a soundscape from background music into that which deserves my total attention.

Recently though, mainstream rap has been somewhat more bereft of this storytelling, focused on the more…marketable aspects of the genre. Prince Ea has noticed as well, and has something to say about this issue. He does so in a way that demonstrates the aforementioned lyrical complexity and juxtaposition of the genre in full force. It’s more than a little refreshing, to be honest, and takes a ton of creativity to pull off.