Send "Random Axe " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Avclub |
 The gruff delivery and roughneck charisma of J-Dilla protégé Guilty Simpson have made him a popular guest rapper in underground circles, but his cartoon aggression can wear a little thin over the course of an entire record. Simpson shared his 2010 album, O.J. Simpson, with the trippy instrumentals of producer (and fellow J-Dilla collaborator) Madlib. Simpson’s new supergroup, Random Axe, again finds him sharing the spotlight with collaborators who play to his limited strengths. The belligerent antics of Heltah Skeltah’s Sean Price take some of the weight off Simpson, but the project’s real MVP is Detroit producer Black Milk, who produces and raps.Black Milk’s quietly assured production gives the album the diversity it lacks lyrically, whether he’s setting some of Simpson and Price’s most thoughtful lyrics to a spooky minimalist haunted-house beat on “Everybody Nobody Somebody,” or counteracting his lyricists’ abundant grit with sparkling, anthemic pianos on “Random Call.” The supergroup concept is an invitation to self-indulgence, but Random Axe burns through 15 tracks—some of them about 60 seconds long—in about 40 tight minutes, making the trio more than the sum of its considerable parts....full text |
| Culturebully |
| Random Axe has arrived with straight “slap you in the face” hip hop and no gimmicks, choruses or stupid features. The Detroit-meets-Brooklyn collaboration is made up of a trio featuring Detroit’s Black Milk, a student of J Dilla and new school producer/MC, the colorful punchline lyrics and hard-splitting humor of MC Sean Price (Heltah Skeltah, Boot Camp Click and NYC’s Duck Down Records) and Detroit’s below the radar hard rhymer Guilty Simpson (an eloquent MC well versed in J Dilla and Madlib soundscapes, riding shotgun on many of their productions). With their self-titled debut release the group goes raw dog on the rap game, with Black Milk sticking mainly to the production roles, adding loads of synths and heavy drums, while dropping only a few bars here and there, instead allowing Sean Price and Guilty Simpson to trade flows. The album opens with “Zoo Drugs,” a quick intro that leads into the furious “Random Call.” This riot causing track opens with Sean P going hard on the softness pervading rap with the straight out the box winner, rapping “No love letter rhymes and raps about chicks/Just a whole lotta drugging and thugging that’s it/You can call me one-dimensional/But ain’t too much talking when this slug get into you.” Like a hip hop protection squad, when shit gets too out of hand simply “Call up nigga, nigga Guilty, call up nigga, nigga Sean P from the 313 to the NYC.” Their espionage jump “Black Ops” follows by rolling over brooding drums and menacing lyrical content. On another head-rocker, “Chewbacca,” Sean P grows tired of the wackness of the new era, lyrically responding: “Fuckin’ new jack rapper, flinch when I walk by, ’cause I do smack rappers/Sean P the barbarian, deadly dose of the dope shit, black tar heroin.” Guilty Simpson keeps it equally fierce, “I’ll carve a smile right next to your frown, like laugh now, cry later.”...full text |
| Popmatters |
| Let me guess: You were wondering where Guilty Simpson’s been since his 2008 debut LP (well, he did do OJ Simpson with Madlib in 2010). You’ve wondered why Sean Price has mostly seemed transparent lately, even on the Heltah Skeltah reunion LP two years ago. And you wondered how Black Milk went from perfect to overambitious in just one move when Album of the Year proved overwhelming. I’m obviously extrapolating myself onto my readers, but am I that off base? Random Axe, according to my lights, is a trio of critically acclaimed auteurs who have all basically slipped under the radar recently, either because of their absence or because of the absence of their amazingness. That’s not to say that this trio has disappointed anyone per se, only that they seem like a group uniting because, taken individually, they’re old news. I have to start this way because, frankly, Random Axe renders obsolete the idea that any of these three rap artists are washed up. Random Axe isn’t a throwback to the mid-‘90s because of its sound, but because it sounds, and more importantly feels, so unified and right. Random Axe is a group consisting of two Detroit hoods and one New York City (self-proclaimed) burnout, yet it feels like the work of three dudes that spent their whole lives experiencing the same ups and downs; the same losses, disappointments, failures, and successes. As such, the trio of Black Milk (sometimes spitting, but always on boards), Sean Price, and Guilty Simpson feels like that rare sort of rap collaboration that isn’t frivolous or transitory, but necessary....full text |
Random Axe lyrics
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