Cassette Review // LUGERLEX "MONKEY DUST" (Bloody Monk Consortium)

$10 //
Edition of 50 //
https://bloodymonkconsortium.bandcamp.com/album/monkey-dust //

One of the first aspects of all of this which might draw you in is the name LUGERLEX because it's a jumbled up version of Lex Luger, who is like the wrestler not Lex Luther.   These beats are harsh and the vocals are dark and cut sharp.   It's hip hop at its finest but also reminds me of some murder anthems.   Though the first song tells the story of LSD, which gives a lot of this cassette a feeling of drug abuse but at the same time (maybe because of the title) I am also reminded of the "12 Monkeys" movie and just think this somehow ties in with that.

I'm not even sure what to compare this with exactly.  Is it Wu Tang?  Is it NWA?  Not quite.   But it has that feeling to it, where it's not just words and beats, but it's an entire movement within a sound and eventually people will start comparing future versions of hip hop to LUGERLEX the way I'm trying to do now with that which already exists.   For some reason, this also feels like something which could either be on the soundtrack to "Trespass" (which I have on cassette) or "Judgment Night", which says a lot if you've ever heard either of those two albums.

If you need something recent to think about how this might sound, it has that Benny the Butcher vibe to it at some point, and as such I can hear some clipping. in here but it's not 100% the same as either of them.    A lot of hip hop (such as what you hear on the radio) I feel makes people comfortable.   They like to sing along and sometimes forget that there was a time when hip hop- like punk music- would make people scared.  I feel like this cassette could take us back closer to those days of when you could play this and people would be scared rather than immediately want to sing along.

Sometimes I feel like I hear Busta Rhymes in this as well.   That makes me think of Tribe, but also it makes me wonder what would happen if Busta Rhymes was part of Wu Tang.   I think it's just about that intensity- that level of not listening to this one after dark if you're not brave enough.    Towards the end of this cassette there is an audio clip listening off the drugs from the movie "Fear and Loathing" and so I do go back to think this is about drugs still.  Maybe that's the scary part of it though- these guys are on drugs and you don't know what they're capable of so you play this one a little quieter in public.