Artist Close Up: Bond St. District Are The Musical Cousins of Kid Cudi
Kid Cudi has been a known influencer of the intergalactic, digitized fantasies that inspired Drake, Kanye West, and many other modern artists’ music. Before him the Beastie Boys were seen as headliners for synth-rap with a mutual edge of “nerd” and “in your face” sensibilities. When you bring out the imagination of other dimension through a “comic book” rap style of vividness and combine with the dominating force that is Hip Hop, you get said, innovating artists and the new duo Bond St. District (BSD).
Their debut album, A Church on Vulcan is a phenomenal welcome to all Hip Hop lovers that enjoy the genre’s ability to capture earthly issues, but love the idea of bringing them to other, dimensional sounds. It is not without coincidence that Bond St. District chose Vulcan within their title; whom would not want to pay homage to one of the biggest, vibrant fandoms ever!?! Still, Vulcan is the home of logic and rationalizing emotions, yet, like its most acclaimed citizen, Spock, this Hip Hop Duo uses music as the clash between sentiment and reason. When you are a social being going through the streets of life, it is not always easy to choose rationale over feelings and vice versa. It is in this essence that the brutishly charming flow of DDM captivates listeners, and elaborates the struggle to healthily view their life in pain and joy. In songs like, “Terror Era”, “Show Me Your Hands”, “A Church On Vulcan”, DDM obliterates listeners with spiritual analysis on his troubled childhood and the social turrets that a black man must face in the world. The songs draw on Paul Hutson’s production to give them a spiritual hymnal evocativeness and post-apocalyptic flare.
A Church on Vulcan appears like a spiritual analysis through the mind of Hip Hop. BSD approach the world like it is a wasteland trying to discover how ashes can rebuild a better home. Together, DDM AKA Emmanuel Williams and Producer Paul Hutson, feel like the giant laser beam that shoots out of the Death Star and destroys planets (Star Wars Reference). Houston’s production is is like a steel jack-hammer heavily smashing the bassline, while DDM’s fiery lyricism feels like the hulk busting through walls. The point is, when united, the two are deadly and dangerous. Not only are they incredibly endearing with their lethal stylings, but they are also cutting with their truths. From “Don’t Panic” to “Technicolor”, DDM manages to show that amongst the good times are dark ones, as well. Hutson’s machinated beats give a dark undercurrent to make your feel like A Church On Vulcan is also a club in Mad Max’s Fury Road, where everybody dances and then goes to fight body and soul for resources. The idea is cuttingly truthful to the current state of the world BSD wishes to present: one that works in exchanges.
Humanity works according to exchanges with a sincere belief that for one person to rise another must fall. The very idea is, as Spock would say, illogical and destructive to the species as a whole. While everyone has something to offer, competition amongst human beings is bred by man-made constructions that not all should be allowed to offer it. It is a tragic mindset that Bond St. District reveals through the raw, sheer sonic force of A Church On Vulcan. Click Here For More Information on Bond St. District.
