Rahsaan - Georgetown

Rahsaan is no stranger to the world of Hip Hop. His older brother, Selwyn Seyfu Hinds is a notable author and glory-days Editor-in-Chief of The Source magazine. Knowing that association exists, one might expect Rahsaan to be low on talent and high on connections. Luckily, on his debut album Georgetown that is anything but the case. Despite Hinds’ Gil-Scott Heron–esque interludes, the LP is absent of stars. The Guyana born, Brooklyn raised, Miami based emcee instead commendably takes it on himself to win over the admiration of fans and respect of peers. And, for the most part, he is very successful. Over the course of Georgetown, named for the capital city of Guyana, the young emcee does an impressive job of engaging the listener with his forceful, impassioned delivery.

Georgetown contains a bulk of first class material. “Mr. A&R” calls out rappers, executives, and label heads by name. Rahsaan sounds bitter to say the least with a refrain of “Fuck you, Mr. A&R, Fuck you mister president.” There is real anger and pain in Rahsaan’s voice here. Title track “Georgetown” is a musical origin story which tells the tale of Rahsaan’s birth in Guyana and adolescence in Brooklyn and opens with the lines, “Born in the land of diamonds, sniffin’ sugar cane.” It is also production-wise, the most propulsive and lively track on the album with a knocking beat and thick strings recalling early ’00s Top 40 highlights. Rahsaan brings the goods here spitting some of his most tangled rhymes: “I shoot herr-on in my veins, been sniffin’ all kinds a crack / Now I’m lifted, getting twisted every time I rhyme the tracks / My speech sounds slurred you have to rewind it back / God got a favorite rapper, you ain’t heard? Well I am that.” Another lyrical highlight is “To Her,” which does a great job of describing devotion gone wildly overboard.

Rahsaan delivers richly detailed accounts of the aftermath of a suicide attempt but does so in reverse, “Out the hospital bed, nurse gets back on her shift / Tubes come outta my vein / Mom get back on that plane / Back to Florida sun / No more, ‘What’s wrong with her son?'” It’s not all serious subjects though, as and Rahsaan does irreverent well on a track like “Sneaker Store Terrorist.” The track boasts the album’s best beat, it’s all low-end with huge stomping drums and distorted bass. Over all that, the emcee spits goofy, playful lines like, “My two-tone Uptowns piss off a racist,” and “I’m old school poppin’, I’m gold-tooth rockin’ / My hands start to sweat when I go shoe shoppin’.” “Wanna Get High” is a track that could fall into the “generic weed song” category if it weren’t for the rapper’s self-effacing attitude. This stoner anthem stands out by showing the dumber side of weed and it’s delivered in the voice of an actual pot-head who is unafraid to recount stories of being so high he makes a complete fool of himself: “Put my head under the fountain / The cold water won’t stop my heart bouncin’ / Keep my head under here / Fuck it if I’m drownin’.”

At other times, Georgetown shows how green its maker may be. Large undertakings such as “Here We Go Again,” appears concerned with lazy consumerism without the knowing smirk that makes that type of commentary interesting. More disappointing is “Gotta Love It” where pianos and drums pound with equal power to distinguish the beat. It’s too bad then that the track is saddled with a chorus that wears out its welcome halfway through its first appearance and lines that allude to Rahsaan’s fashion career don’t go beyond unconvincing boasts like “Rock European kicks for kicks / Take two week trips down on the beach / And I’m back with new street shit.”

Rahsaan doesn’t reserve the candor for the lighter moments either as the last two songs on “Georgetown” will attest. He is also very capable of crafting moments that are startling in their frankness. The first, “Mama’s Baby,” approaches the hood coming of age story in an interesting manner. Rahsaan wonders the whole time if his bad decisions will physically pain his mother, if she will even be able to love him after all he has done. Lyrics like, “Mama, I’m about to be a father / Mama, the two girls I went raw wit / Mama, I just had them both aborted,” are admirably revelatory and brutal in their honesty. “Look At Me Now” finds guest The Last American B-Boy nearly breaking down as he delivers pointed lines directed at his mother, “Do you love me or resent me, dear mama? / Where’s my daddy, who was he? / Was you a ho? / Just let me know. Please, mama / Growin’ up without a man was real, mama / Dirt clothes, welfare jeans, mama / Ya seen, mama / You was really fuckin’ mean, mama / Guess it’s hard being a teen-mama,” the real anguish coming through elevates his lyrics beyond mere accusations of neglect to something like a breakthrough. Particularly in this season, one must find Rahsaan’s (and the Last American B-Boy’s) style topical, and his honesty rivals Tupac Shakur’s quick comparison shift on his own mother, from “crack fiend” to “black queen.” This is also heard in lines like, “Please, mama / Growin’ up without a man was real, mama / Dirt clothes, welfare jeans, mama / Ya seen, mama / You was really fuckin’ mean, mama / Guess it’s hard being a teen-mama,” the real anguish coming through elevates his lyrics beyond mere accusations of neglect to something like a breakthrough.

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The wit and energy shown throughout Georgetown are reason enough to expect success from Rahsaan as his career progresses. But it’s the honesty and power that crackles through the last two tracks that allow the listener to imagine Rahsaan accomplishing great things.