King Apathy Honkey Kong
The white gorilla from Connecticut is back with a third installment to his discography. With the appropriately titled new Honkey Kong album, Apathy backs up his tweets by crafting music which harkens back to the rap he fell in love with years ago and delivers another classicist East Coast record that takes advantage of his flair for Big L-style wordplay.
In early 2011, Apathy went on a Twitter rant that chastised the state of rap. He said the same kinds of things that other previously concerned rappers had brought up—frets about the commercial music outnumbering the sincerity, artists being soft and emotional instead of embodying the hard-headed and rough necked demeanors from back in the day—but but some hip-hop heads found it refreshing to see an artist speaking his mind without fears of industry repercussions.
Although this is the alien-tongued emcee’s third studio album, I know that most of you (excluding die-hard hip-hop heads) may not be familiar. Chad Bromley was born March 8, 1979 and is an underground rapper and producer from Willimantic, Connecticut. During his teen years, he bounced around from school to school in Connecticut. He is a re-founding member and unofficial leader of the Demigodz crew. His first appearance was on Jedi Mind Tricks’ The Psycho-Social, Chemical, Biological & Electro-Magnetic Manipulation of Human Consciousness on the tracks: “The Three Immortals”, “Omnicron” and “The Apostle’s Creed”. Apathy frequently collaborates with Demigodz members, Motive, Esoteric, and Celph Titled, who also frequently produces for him. In addition, he is moreover a member of the super-group Army Of The Pharaohs (founded by Vinnie Paz of Jedi Mind Tricks) and the Connecticut crew Doe Rakers with frequent collaborator Motive as well as DJ Chum The Skrilla Guerilla. At one time, Apathy was signed to Atlantic Records, but left the label on his own volition after having his album shelved for several years, a problem that seems to be plaguing rappers in recent years (i.e. Stat Quo, Obie Trice, etc.).
He released his debut album, Eastern Philosophy, in March 2006 on Babygrande Records. A majority of his previous underground work has been collected on two albums: the two-disc It’s the Bootleg, Muthafuckas! Vol. 1 and Where’s Your Album?!!. In January 2007, Apathy released another collection of his most-recent works via the mixtape Baptism By Fire. Apathy is also in the group called Get Busy Committee. His third solo album, Honkey Kong along with the Primate Mindstate EP as a bonus disk was released on August 23, 2011 on Dirty Version Records.
As a member of Demigodz, Get Busy Committee, and Army Of The Pharaohs, Apathy has reminders of raw hip-hop around him daily. He continues to keep similarly-minded company around him on Honkey Kong, and while his legendary accomplices do their jobs, Apathy proves his understanding of their era with his own performance. He and Celph Titled trade barbarianisms over DJ Premier’s brawny guitar riffs and snares on “Stop What Ya Doin”, he deftly maneuvers Muggs’ punchy string plucks on “Fear Itself”, and he waxes poetic about his hometown over the Beatminerz’ twangy “Peace Connecticut”. Even West Coast veteran Xzibit re-emerges (it’s about time!) to join the white boy on “The Recipe”. When his role models aren’t offering new material, they’re resurfacing through samples: iconic lyrics from acts like Outkast, Pharcyde and EPMD are looped or quoted throughout the album, further reminders of where the album’s creator keeps his standards.
“Never Say Never†is a fun throwback to ’90s dance hall-rap fusion with invigorated verses from Mad Lion and Smif-N-Wessun’s General Steele. Apathy’s lyrical wizardry and adherence to true school principles grate at times, but his humor and self-awareness keep the record going. “Check To Check†is a funny, relatable take on the broke-rapper trope as Ap semi-brags, “I radiate being broke, you almost see me glow/I’m the Incredible Hulk of blowing money, fa shoâ€.
Listeners hoping for Apathy to reinvent the wheel with Honkey Kong will undoubtedly be disappointed, but the disc is a great reminder of the rap that he and many of his fans grew up listening to. By translating the reverence toward his idols into his own talents instead of living in the past, Apathy continues to earn his keep in a genre that he feels is losing its way (amen, brother). Despite a few redundant tracks and a lack of consistency, Honkey Kong paints a good picture of the impressive raw talent Apathy is capable of in 2011.
I personally thought that the album was great. This is the kind of rap that the game is in dire need of right now; we need someone like this to get back to the earlier years of rap and correct the path that the genre is on. I have mentioned in previous articles how I feel that rap/hip-hop are heading in the wrong direction. It is impossible for any genre to remain stagnant, artists are constantly tweaking it as a whole and are often utilizing new ways in which to interact with the medium. That being said, although it is impossible to stop rap and hip-hop from moving forward, it is possible to change its trajectory. And this is exactly what I think Apathy is after, and I commend him on his fight. For those of you that are sick of the auto-tuning and sick of forty-year old rappers talking about Gucci and Prada in their lyrics, sick of rappers falling in love on the radio and sick the new dance moves, Apathy is here to save the day. I’m just sayin’, if you’re looking for that raw and real type of rap, that hard ish that you remember playing on your walkman as you rode the bus to high-school or bumped in-between classes, look no further because here it is. And I am not the only one that thinks that Honkey Kong deserves some attention, XXL magazine gave it an “XL†rating (The Game’s new The R.E.D. Album only receiving a “L†rating) citing it as “an album with ’90s throwback sensibilities and a modern-day feel†and HipHopDX.com gave it a 4.5/5.
Now, I know a lot of you a probably pretty busy listening to and dissecting The R.E.D. Album and the Carter IV but make sure not to let Honkey Kong pass you by. I promise you that this is one you won’t want to miss. I’ve only had the CD for a few days, and it already has more plays on my iTunes than my copy of The R.E.D. Album. You have to trust me on this one, Apathy’s Honkey Kong is really that dope.
Just give it a chance. If I haven’t swayed you yet, then check out the music video for “Check To Check†below which is the first single off the Honkey Kong album and preview “1:52 A.M.†which is my absolute favorite track off the new album.
King Kong Ain’t Got Shit On Apathy!
“CHECK TO CHECK” MUSIC VIDEO:
[youtube _IVaqGhG854 600 350]
“1:52 A.M.”:
[youtube fUvxCHxBd8w 600 350]
HONKEY KONG TRACK LIST:
1. Honkey Kong featuring Vinnie Paz (produced by Vanderslice)
2. Holy Ghost featuring Slaine (produced by Apathy)
3. The Villain featuring Ill Bill (produced by Apathy)
4. Check to Check (produced by Evidence)
5. Stop What Ya Doin featuring Celph Titled (produced by DJ Premier)
6. The Recipe featuring Xzibit (produced by Stu Bangas)
7. Fear Itself (produced by DJ Muggs)
8. Who Got Da Juice starring Blacastan (skit)
9. It’s Only Hip-Hop featuring Brevi (produced by Statik Selektah)
10. I Dedicate This To You featuring Tosha Makia (produced by Smoke The World)
11. All I Think About featuring Action Bronson (produced by Vanderslice)
12. Never Say Never featuring General Steele & Mad Lion (produced by Teddy Roxpin)
13. Albino Gorillas featuring Esoteric (produced by DJ Wayne Ski)
14. Peace Connecticut cuts by Evil Dee (produced by Da Beatminerz)
15. Army Of The Godz featuring Esoteric, Blacastan, Reef The Lost Cauze, Planetary, Crypt The Warchild, Motive, Celph Titled & Vinnie Paz (produced by Teddy Roxpin)
16. 1:52 AM (produced by Apathy)
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