Young rappers releasing their first album can take a lesson from Davinci. On his debut the Fillmore District San Francisco emcee keeps the songs short and to the point. First impressions have truly become everything in music these days with artists being lucky to have even one album see wide release. Davinci makes the most of his opportunity and delivers a tight set of street Rap that while not showing a wide array of styles nevertheless displays a mastery of most of the ones presented.
After a brief intro the album kicks off with its title track and de facto mission statement. The song makes clear over its rollicking beat that the listener is in for a whole lot of tough talk and “state of the hood” narratives with almost-too-clever lyrics like “Don’t make me dead guys for dead guys in my pockets.” Another example of this lyricism occurs on “Real Niggaz” (“Flash heat like menopause / Flash heat, ya man’ll pause”) and on “Concrete Jungle Juice” (“In haters’ mouths and on the nerves like cavities) but they come off more like throw-away jokes and it’s hard to hold their borderline cheesiness against Davinci. For several songs after the title track, the album just continues to improve. “What You Finna Do” is essentially the story of the last man alive in the hood and it boasts a great creeping atmosphere over which Davinci keeps his voice at just above a whisper spitting pointed lines like, “Republican’s dream, a street nigga’s nightmare.” This is also directly discussed in “Aristocrat” where, over a simple beat fleshed out with pianos, Davinci puts his head down and focuses on one of his favorite targets: the people who want to push him out of his city. The theme of these two songs, and much of the album, is an important one and can best be summed up by the sampled orator at the tracks opening: “Urban renewal means negro removal.” Davinci returns to this idea throughout the record so even when the track may be less than captivating there is always the sense that vital topics are being considered and addressed.
Luckily, the album contains far more captivating tracks than not. One such track is “Ben,” which opens and closes with two legends, Michael Jackson and Jay-Z. Between those two sampled guest spots is a pretty interesting concept song addressed to Davinci’s self-proclaimed “best friend”: Ben Franklin or, more accurately, the picture of the great statesman that adorns the one hundred dollar bill. Using journalistic detail in lines like “Fresh out of grammar school ‘for I ever held a tool / My jeans was faded, rockin’ dirty slanted shoes,” the song is a fascinating example of how so many people worship and find their worth in inanimate objects, holding them so dear that they become like a person.
Unfortunately, after that inspired opening run of songs the album stalls out. The middle section containing “Whipslash,” “Round Me,” and “Do What It Do” is serviceable but the production is too uniform. Sure the songs knock to a reasonable degree and DaVinci spits convincing turf talk but there aren’t a ton of memorable lines and his delivery stays in the same basic range throughout. Besides those three the most disappointing track on the album is “Ghetto to Mars,” an unsuccessful sex jam and space jam in one with faux-deep lyrics and jazzy production flourishes.
The Day The Turf Stood Still closes on a good note as Davinci becomes more playful and shows some vocal dexterity. This is most observable on “Long Chain,” which contains an unexpected Odetta sample and features the emcee speeding up and slowing down his flow to good effect. “All I Have” features the album’s spryest beat and horn stabs combined with some of Davinci’s best lines, “Back in high school I used to cut class all day / Purple in my locker stinkin’ up the hallway” and “When I’m broke I feel like robbin’ everybody / Pull up the club and start a problem at the party” being two examples. Two more late album highlights are “It’s On Now,” which may have Turf‘s best production: staggeringly heavy drums accented with jangling chains and synthesized horns and choral voices. On “Idle Mind,” Davinci goes into detail about the path he has traveled from youth to today, “Cooked Top Ramen and quarter keys in hell’s kitchen / Wishin’ the man upstairs would listen.” Featuring crying guitar lines and ominous drums it’s the darkest track on the album, touching on some real nihilistic stuff like the way people can lose all respect for life.
With his debut album Davinci has displayed both the talent and the strategy of a veteran. He has kept his songs easily digestible and kept his themes clear. Listening to The Day The Turf Stood Still only a few times will give the listener a clear picture of Davinci’s worldview. The only thing that’s really missing is variety. Hopefully on his next release DaVinci will let the cool, tough pose down a little bit and really cut loose, letting his emotions overtake him. But it is certainly saying something about this debut that in this climate there is no question that Davinci will get the opportunity to continue to release material and grow as an artist.
