“State of the Arts” – Afu-Ra (2005) [Mitch Nick’s Picks]
This week I’m swinging back to the 2000’s and picking Afu-Ra’s album “State of the Arts”. Oddly enough, I was first introduced to Afu-Ra while working in a hostel in Budapest over six years ago now. One of the local Hungarian workers there was an insane break-dancer and a huge hip hop fan. When we finished our daily chores and the hostel was slow, we would take turns playing different tracks but my depth paled in comparison to him. We bumped several Afu-Ra tracks in those days and one of them stood out to me above the rest: Sucka Free. The beat hits in a special way and to this day I’m still “doing my thing”. It’s wild to me that Afu-Ra has less than 200,000 listeners on Spotify and his top played songs are from his 2000 album “Body of the Life Force”.
I believe “State of the Arts” is a very entertaining listen due to Afu-Ra’s immense creativity, energy and the range of style in his choice of instrumentals. The variation in the production is definitely much greater than my previous three choices and while that range can certainly impact an album in either direction, I feel here that it positively impacts the album overall. Just consider how different songs like “God of Rap”, “Pusha”, “Rumble”, “Why Cry” and “Only You” are to each other. I think this shows a good amount of versatility on Afu-Ra’s part. Personally, “Sucka Free” (as I mentioned before), “God of Rap” and “Why Cry” (which features Gentleman who is an awesome artist in his own right) are my favorite tracks from the album and have been in rotation for some time now.
Afu-Ra has an interesting backstory as well as he grew up in Brooklyn and was inspired to start rapping by his friend, Jeru the Damaja. He also had early connections with Guru and is a member of the Gang Starr Foundation. DJ Premier even helped him record his first single “Whirlwind Through Cities” which holds the title as his most played song by far. He also seems like a very interesting, down to earth guy judging by the content of his lyrics and responses in interviews like the one you can find here. So, expand your horizons and check out something new if you haven’t bumped some Afu-Ra yet!