Sampling: TomC3, Prince Po - Saga of the Simian Samurai

What’s a hip-hop album without flashy jewelry, fancy cars, or stacks of money on the cover? More importantly, what kind of hip-hop album doesn’t even reveal its featured MC’s name? The answer to both of those questions is simple: an exceptionally good hip-hop album. Saga of the Simian Samurai, the 2007 collaboration between Bay Area producer TomC3 and acclaimed New York MC Prince Po, is that unusual rap CD that matches gritty, progressive beats with offbeat, razor-sharp lyrics. And even though Prince Po (half of the former Organized Konfusion) dabbles in the usual subjects of women, drugs, and ghetto life, he does so in a way that simply blows contemporary rappers out of the water.
Po’s strongest characteristic is a limitless treasure trove of rhyme schemes, on display most effectively on the out-of-step motivational “Roota to the Toota” and the stuttering funk of “Now and Then,” which features a wildly differing yet somehow interconnected laundry list of modern pop culture snapshots (“Myspace/afros/suede Pumas/George Foreman grills/rap game rumors/hot tracks/Vice City/Flavor Of Love”). TomC3 flexes his chop-and-mix muscle on the Middle Eastern swoon of “Land of Perfect” and the cinematic soul of “I’m Hatin’,” although Po steals the show with rapid-fire tongue-twisters (“Land”) and swaggering, sarcastic braggadocio (“Hatin’”). But that’s what happens when a legendary MC with 20 years experience teams up with a young, on-the-rise producer.
It’s hard to tell who benefited more from this album, but give “Lessons In Drama” one listen and you’ll be floored by Tom’s elegantly dark beat, paired with the raw authenticity of Po’s “chronicles of the ghetto”: violence, drug addiction, gambling, love, sex, death, life, work, food, and parenting, all compressed into three minutes of sheer hip-hop perfection. If modern rappers adhered to Tom and Po’s aesthetic (off-the-wall creative design; a complete disregard for ego), the world would have more triumphs like Saga of the Simian Samurai, along with the audience an album of its caliber deserves. But until then, works of art like this will continue to slip under the mainstream radar… which is kind of easy when the damn MC’s name isn’t even on the front cover.