Willie Isz-Georgiavania
i n f o
encoder......: Lame 3.98 V0
bitrate/ size: avg.86,8 MB
source.......: CDDA
n o t e s
label........: Lex
releasedate..: 2009
url..........: http://www.myspace.com/willieisz
...."Man, Georgiavania is dope as f--k! It's that next
level s--t!!!" - Big Boi from Outkast.. ....Jneiro
Jarel and Khujo Goodie? Who would have figured?..
..On the surface, the two couldnÆt be more different.
Jneiro is an acclaimed rapper, singer, and producer of
bleeding-edge beats. In fact, he usually adopts a
different alias for each album: 2005Æs Three Piece
Puzzle as Jneiro, 2006Æs Brazilian-inflected Beat
Journey as Dr. Who Dat; and last yearÆs space-hop
adventure Craft of the Lost Art as Shape of Broad
Minds. ..Meanwhile, Khujo Goodie is one-fourth of the
legendary Goodie Mob, the Atlanta quartet behind the
groundbreaking 1995 classic Soul Food. His inimitable
baritone and Southern wisdom is recognized by hip-hop
fans the world over. He continues to be an underground
force, releasing a well-received solo album, Mercury
in 2007. ..Together, the two are called Willie Isz.
..ôMy dadÆs name is Willie Gilyard, and his dadÆs name
is Willie Knighton. And theyÆre both from Georgia,ö
explains Jneiro. Meanwhile, the ôIszö comes from the
90s MTV cartoon The Maxx, where little carnivorous
monsters called the Isz plague the titular superhero.
ItÆs inspired by KhujoÆs trademark growl: ôKhujoÆs got
a monstrous type of approach where youÆve got to take
him seriously.ö ..They both hail from Georgia, but
Jneiro currently calls Philadelphia and Los Angeles
home. ItÆs their mix of sensibilities û JneiroÆs urban
futurism and wildly unique vocals alongside KhujoÆs
classic Southern rap - that powers Willie IszÆs
Georgiavania. ..ôWe definitely want to keep that
Dungeon, Goodie Mob, OutKast vibe. A lot of hip-hop is
lacking that soul that Dungeon Family used to bring to
the table. WeÆre holding on to that,ö says Jneiro.
..ôBut weÆve got some new elements. When we put out
that æGeorgiavania,Æ man, people were like, æMan, I
canÆt believe Khujo spit on a beat like that! HeÆs
snapping on the beat, too!Æ I want the people to see
Khujo in a different type of way. This dude is
incredibly talented. I want to showcase his
diversity.ö ..ôItÆs that vibe,ö says Khujo. ôThe type
of music that JJ is blessed to sit in the room and
come up with is the vibe that music is going to go.ö
..GeorgiavaniaÆs title track, a Gothic mix of bounce-
rap and that crazy ôRrraagh!ö sound from De La SoulÆs
ôEgo TrippinÆ (Part Two),ö is definitely on some other
ish. But it only hints at Willie IszÆs eclecticism.
..ôItÆs very musical, and itÆs very electronic,ö says
Jneiro. ôYouÆre going to hear guitar and live
instrumentation, and thereÆs only one sample on the
album. ItÆs a whole ænother perspective of my
approach. People know me for being extra weird, but I
bring it more down to earth with this record. ItÆs a
good balance between the two.ö..
from BBC:
A duo who seem intent on turning Dirty South hip hop
stereotypes inside out, Willie Isz have wasted no time
gaining comparisons to the likes of OutKast and Gnarls
Barkley, which is shorthand for the fact that they
don't really sound like anybody but themselves.
Growing out of the same Goodie Mob kernel that gave us
Cee Lo Green and signed to the same label that issued
Danger MouseÆs Dangerdoom and DM & Jemini projects,
itÆs clear that they are kindred spirits, though. Oh,
and OutKastÆs Big Boi is a fan.
Still, Georgiavania deserves to be appreciated as a
unique entity, given the amount of imagination and
effort thatÆs gone into creating it. In the titular
fictional state, elasticised psychedelic beats
accompany heavy breathing flows into oblivion. The
hissing, clanging score of Blast Off might be a
(deliberately) uneasy first footing, but it doesnÆt
take long for the skittering, chopping keys of the
title track to recall one of the RZAÆs more
experimental moments while weÆre taken on a woozy trip
around an otherworldly cityscape. After that, Loner
sounds like a Joy Division cover, all compressed
vocals and minimalist, synthetic backing track. Just
in case we were getting comfortable, presumably.
As theyÆre seemingly propelled by the desire to do
something wildly different with each track, it seems
hard to imagine sitting down and grafting a single;
or, rather, a track so straightforward that it could
be a used as a single. I DidnÆt Mean To is an
unapologetic soul song, followed on by the nursery
rhyme-esque tinkling of U Want Some?, the pair only
really coming unstuck when they try to crossbreed
club-heavy hip hop with violins on Grussle.
This constant wrong-footing of the listener is what
can make Georgiavania hard work and perhaps limit
their appeal to anyone not prepared to devote
themselves to two or three listens. Alternatively,
they might have gauged peopleÆs disillusionment with
stale, staid genre tags just right and be embraced.
They could even write a Hey Ya! or Crazy for the hell
of it, possibly without even realising theyÆve done
it. Just not this time around.
d a t a
# t r a c k n a m e t i m e
01- Willie Intro [00:25]
02- Blast Off [03:14]
03- Georgiavania [04:05]
04- Loner [04:00]
05- Gawn Jet [04:07]
06- I DidnÆt Mean To [04:06]
07- U Want Some [02:47]
08- Spiritual Gladiators [03:58]
09- The Grussle [03:45]
10- Violent Heart Box [05:39]
11- Autopilot [04:01]
12- Shone [01:34]
13- In The Red [04:51]
86,8 m e g s t o t a l [46:32]