Dominant Species

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King Kapisi

Usually Ships: 2 - 6 Days
Normally: ~~$34.95~~
SmokeCDs Price: $26.95

Disc 1:
#	Track Name	MP3 Sample
1	Raise Up	MP3 sample

2	Whiplash	MP3 sample

3	Live It Up	MP3 sample

4	Graveyard Shift	MP3 sample

5	Elimination Process	MP3 sample

6	Rugged Shit	MP3 sample

7	Spit Back At You	MP3 sample

8	Open Thought	MP3 sample

9	Lollipop	MP3 sample

10	Blind Faith	MP3 sample

11	For Tha Dollar	MP3 sample

12	Jesus Loves You	MP3 sample

Smoke Notes

From his early days around Wellington as MC Bran Muffin in Gifted & Brown, King Kapisi (Bill Urale to his mum up there in Newtown) stood out as a rapper pretty-damn-likely-to-succeed, and that's not just because of his six-foot-plus frame.
This is his third album for FMR since 2000's Savage Thoughts, but it was his 1998 debut single "Sub-Cranium Feeling" that really put him on the map. Easily one of the best NZ hip-hop tracks ever made, it boasted an impossibly great video directed by his sister Sima. She also directed the video for the follow-up single "Reverse Resistance", a track which won him Best Songwriter at the 1999 APRA Silver Scroll Awards, a first (but not last) for a hip-hop track. His sophomore album in 2003 2nd Round Testament and the hit single "U Can’t Resist Us" featuring Che-Fu, one of the first NZ hip-hop tracks to get the now almost indispensable Chris Graham video treatment to ensure success, did the business as much as it's predecessor.
Which brings us onto 2005 and "Dominant Species", a rock-solid album that suffers none of the dearth of ideas that many artists going for a trifecta of hit albums endure. It punches hard from the outset, with lead single "Raise Up" opening the album with that uber-contemporary (incredibly slick & expensive) US-influenced R'n'B/hip-hop sound that worked so well for Dei Hamo. Produced by Urale himself, it's pretty clear he's been paying close attention to the work of producers like Timbaland and Trackmasters, but injecting a uniquely orgainic NZ/Polynesian aspect that keeps it from falling into being simply a dull pastiche of that style of sound.
Other standouts include "Live It Up" featuring Savage, the incredibly ambitious and atmospheric "Graveyard Shift", and "For The Dollar" featuring the sweet falsetto of Adeaze. In all the beats are fresh and clean, the rhymes are tight and imaginative, and the feel of it is as a 'proper' album should be, thanks in no small part to the consistently solid mixing by Urale and Steve "Scoobs" Roberts at York Street Studios and the really rather incredible mastering job done by Don Bartley at Sydney's Studio 301. An impressive third time out for King Kapisi. Recommended.

Product Details

Artist: King Kapisi
Album: Dominant Species
Cat #: 338765
Date: 13/10/2005
Format: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Label: Festival
Usually Ships: 2 - 6 Days
Genres: Hip-Hop
Normally: ~~$34.95~~
SmokeCDs Price: $26.95