MC 900 Ft Jesus : Falling Elevators

MC 900 Ft Jesus is an interesting cat. Yes, his name comes from Oral Roberts, who said he was personally contacted by a 900 ft. Jesus. He's ostensibly a rapper, and he does rap on this album. But he's not very good at it. He's got that whiny-white-guy problem that most white rappers have, but the real problem I have with his lyrics, which are about serial arsonists or serial killers or surrealistic wordplay, are actually pretty sophomoric. They sound like a high-schooler's idea of Lynchian depravity. (Although he did pen the awesome, "Everybody shut up and leave me alone, I'm going straight to heaven", so, props for that.)

But he has two things going for him in my book. First, the music is good. Nice and funky, with deep bass and a driving rhythm. Second, he's got the turntable wizardry of DJ Zero, which, while criminally underused, is still astounding. I still regret I missed the one opportunity I had to see him live. Apparently, he performed a set completely on his own, and he was amazing.

"Falling Elevators" itself isn't so much a rap song as... Well, it's not a rap song at all. Really, it's a rip-off of Bitches Brew/On the Corner-era Miles Davis, with Mark (that's the MC's real name) uttering some decent spoken word over the top. But those are great Miles albums, and this is a near perfect tribute, with a driving bass line, hyper-syncopated dueling drum kits (yay!), a bass clarinet (more yay!), bongos, organ noodlings and just about anything else you can think of that would make it cool. There's even a couple of interludes where a trumpet floats in like a wraith, dominates, then dissipates into the emptiness. It's an aggressively laid-back funk jam and a thing of beauty.

Anyway, I do really dig this album, it's one of my favorites, but I find I tend to listen through the lyrics rather than to them and just hear the music. If you can do that while digging the funk, it could be right for you. "Falling Elevators" comes from MC 900 Ft Jesus' second album, 1991's Welcome to My Dream.

[You can listen to MC 900 Ft Jesus' "Falling Elevators" by navigating to the post "Song034" and clicking or right-clicking on the title or the link.]

---