Ever since its birth, hip-hop has been one of the most direct and powerful tools for the story-telling of people from marginalized communities. In the 80s, Chuck D of Public Enemy, a group that defined itself by commitment to addressing socio-political issues, summed up this fact by calling rap the "CNN" of Black America. Although to the uninitiated statements like this may seem ridiculous, anyone who has a working knowledge of classic hip-hop albums like Public Enemy's It Takes A Million to Hold Us Backor Boogie Down Production's By All Means Necessary will recognize the truth in Chuck D's statement. Decades later, in a radically different musical climate where "CNN" type work is arguably even more necessary, Open Mike Eagle turns reporter on his latest LP, Brick Body Kids Still Daydream.
The subject of Eagle's latest record is something that is integral to everyone's upbringing - the home. Before the rapper spent his days making "Anti-Anxiety Raps" and hosting "Dark Comedy Late Show(s)", he was Michael Eagle II, a kid living in the Robert Taylor Homes of Chicago, Illinois. He would grow up to outlive the Homes, which were demolished a decade ago. Although they now do not exist, in Brick Body Kids Still Daydreams, Eagle returns to his projects in the first track as a hero to protect them from the forces of gentrification, which eventually win by the end of the record. Eagle is the "Legendary Iron Hood", who he describes by way of X-Men Juggernaut references. With a steady flow in which he occasionally half-sings the words that end his bars, he talks about his environment - how he "can't stop" walking because his "home's overrun by roaches". The "Legendary Iron Hood" sets the tone perfectly, throughout the records' 40 minutes, Eagle lyrically immortalizes the Robert Taylor Homes, by giving what he describes as a " comic book-style reimagining of the Homes".
The result of Eagle's intimacy with the content is that this is his darkest and most emotionally heavy album yet. One could characterize past records, such as Dark Comedy, with the rappers' unique sense of irony and humor, and although those elements are present here, the whimsy that was present in Eagle's former projects is often noticeably absent. With highlights such as "Breezeway Ritual" and the fantastic album closer "My Auntie's Building", Brick Body Kids Still Daydream is clearly much more somber than Eagle's previous work. In "Breezeway Ritual", over a muffled, gloomy beat which features midi-keys, Eagle presents his views of America and how easily the country disregards its black and poor in an ominously delivered chorus:
Secret buried in America/Wrote it all down just to tear it up/What if there’s a god but it's scared of us/What if there’s a god but it's scared of us/So they pairing up/They just sit there and stare at us/What if there’s a god but they scared of us/What if there’s a god but they scared of us
The reference to "god" here could be interpreted in two ways - a direct statement on how religion won't save those who reside in places like Robert Taylor Homes or - and this is more likely - a criticism of those who profess to be religious, yet turn a blind eye and in some cases actively bury the "secret". The "secret" in this case being the horrible conditions - and the systemic causes of these conditions - that people who live in these projects face and the life-shattering consequences of the destruction of projects like the Robert Taylor Homes.
Destruction is a theme that is at the center of Brick Body Kids Still Daydream, but out of all 12 songs, "Auntie's Building" is the one that tackles it most blatantly. Eagle raps about how they "blew up [his] auntie's building", asking "where else in America", but the projects, will people literally "blow up yo' village". There is a tone of desperation in his voice as the sinister beat progresses, adding in glitches and distant guitar solos as Eagle's begging ("Don't knock me down/Don't knock me down/I beg you, I'm just chilling"), turns to aggression and hopelessness ("I’ll fight you all, I'm willing/Just show me who’s that villain/I don't see one, I don't see one/I can't find nobody"). In the face of his powerful enemy, which, as Eagle alludes to, has no singular personification, as it is the United States itself, the "Legendary Iron Hood" finds himself vulnerable and defeated in "Auntie's Building".
Vulnerability is expressed in less fatal tracks than the funereal "Auntie's Building", such as the album highlight "(How Could Anybody) Feel At Home". The track features Eagle rapping one of his best hooks ("Everybody’s secrets inspire all of my scenes/I write in all of my fantasies and I die in all of my dreams") over a beat that owes its dreamy, psychedelic atmosphere to a great use of keys and guitars. In the first verse, Eagle paints himself as being emotionally "exposed", his "skeleton" on display due to the closing of O'Doyle's, a bar that he went to when he felt "morose". The track that follows, "Hymnal", Eagle describes how this emotional vulnerability and the reluctance to show it seems to blatantly contradict his current occupation of rapping for a living ("I was brought into this world with the instinct to back the hell away/And the will to write a rap song as long as an Alaskan day/To fight to balance those two feels is a personal passion play"). In the second half of the song, he is joined by Sammus, who steals the show with the great rhyme schemes and flow of her animated and motivational verse, finishing a track that could be described as an anthem for rapping introverts.
Although it has a relatively short run time, Brick Body Kids Still Daydream presents a large amount of ideas and situations to the listener. "Happy Wasteland Day" cleverly covers the ridiculousness of the current political climate of the United States, led by "the king", who is described as a "garbage person" ("Now we all in a zombie movie/Only weapon is common sense/Zombie sheriffs is tryna to lynch us/Guess I'll call up my congressmen"). Whereas the gorgeous, horn filled hook of "Daydreaming In The Projects" tackles how children in communities like the Robert Taylor Homes can be extremely innovative, in spite of the day-to-day challenges they face ("Ghetto children, making codewords/In the projects around the world/Ghetto children, fighting dragons/In the projects around the world"). Despite the amount of ideas presented here, by the time the listener reaches the end the record, it's clear that the albums' core message is summed up in the art. In the cover art, Eagle and others are depicted as part of the buildings of the Robert Taylor Homes. As Eagle states in "Brick Body Complex", his "body is a building" - even though the projects are now destroyed, they are inseparable from him. As someone whose outlook on life was molded in-part by that environment, Eagle carries a bit of the Robert Taylor Homes everywhere he goes. In what may be his most experimental project yet, Open Mike Eagle has dug into his past to create an album that will surely be entertaining fans of left-field hip-hop for much more than the foreseeable future.
