RSSR.A.P. Ferreira
- The Truly Ancient and Original Lefthanded Styles of the Hoodwinkers and Penny Pinchers [Ruby Yacht, 2019] **
- Purple Moonlight Pages [Ruby Yacht, 2020] A
- Bob's Son: R.A.P. Ferreira in the Garden Level Cafe of the Scallops Hotel [Ruby Yacht, 2021] A-
- 5 to the Eye With Stars [Ruby Yacht, 2022] ***
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Consumer Guide Reviews:
The Truly Ancient and Original Lefthanded Styles of the Hoodwinkers and Penny Pinchers [Ruby Yacht, 2019]
"peace to Daniel Dumile, peace to Dâm Funk, shout-out Ariel Pink one time, [garbled] Stevie Wonder, anyone who keeps making music past they prime, ha-ha, me too" ("Animatronics," "Big Business") **
Purple Moonlight Pages [Ruby Yacht, 2020]
Bad on me for missing Roy Allen Philip when he was rapping as Milo pre-Trump and promise I'll address that omission sometime, as only befits a sui generis Omar Khayyam fan whose return to the lists begins "Fence-building nihilists, good evening/This is the late-sleeping utopian speaking" and whose young son stares with "them wide ol' eyes" as "I scoop socks calmly from under chairs" in a rap with the striking title "Laundry." Son of Chicago South Siders who spent his childhood in Maine and his adolescence with his dad in none other than Kenosha, Wisconsin, then returned to the precincts where his social worker mom maintains a blog called Black Girl in Maine, Roy's not a great rhymer-as-rhymer. Nor is he especially hooky or at all danceable as he free-forms over a striking, changeable jazz-inflected rhythm section curated by Serengeti pal Kenny Segal. As a "king poetical dingbat" and "prince of the corduroy coons," he observes: "Professional rappers often only heard post-mortem/Perhaps try trade school, electrician training seems prescient" (which I should mention will soon assonate with "hesitant"). His motto "No starvin' artists/Just artists starvin' to know," a member in good standing of "The United Defenders of International Good Will," he does his best to enjoy the occasional "vegan white cheddar please panini croissant" as he follows advice he once came across on a bathroom wall: "to be the eyes, the ears, and the consciousness of the creator of the universe." A
Bob's Son: R.A.P. Ferreira in the Garden Level Cafe of the Scallops Hotel [Ruby Yacht, 2021]
Once he has it out with Alexa in a 1:46 opener w/ piano and rhythm section that always tickles me, Ferreira is free to launch a musical poetry jam anchored by shout-outs to African-American Beat forefathers Leroi Jones d/b/a Amiri Baraka ("We are the old men of the rap age"), Ted Joans ("Always take the glasses off for the photographers so I won't look like the rest of 'em"), and cough bombing Bob Kaufman (whose "Abomunist Manifesto" Ferreira converts into a finale). Gregory Corso drops by to say "If you wanna be a poet you can't be/You gotta know you're a poet/And then you've got no fucking choice." And looming over it all there's "Diogenes on the Auction Block": "I stepped up to that auction block, cleared my throat, I was like 'Dig [cough/chuckle], I'm the type of slave you buy if, uh, you, uh, need a new master.'" A-
5 to the Eye With Stars [Ruby Yacht, 2022]
"Rapping gets people killed," State of Mainer notes while copping Hegel's word for ethical order, reporting that his son's laugh sounds like a symphony, and challenging any billionaire with the guts to a game of horseshoes ("Sittlichkeit," "Fighting Back") ***