Rating: NNNN
In the style of producer Oh No’s Exodus Into Unheard Rhythms, which exclusively flipped the works of Hair composer Galt MacDermot into scorching hiphop, People Under the Stairs beat harvester Thes One retrofits Herb Pilhofer’s advertising jingles and scores with bangin’ results. In the album’s liner notes, which include an interview with Thes and Pilhofer, the producer hits the nail on the head when he describes Pilhofer’s work, with its moody folk melodies and late-60s synths, as feeling like “a relic from an outpost of a forgotten America.” Chopping it up and adding only drums and electric bass, Thes reconstructs an instrumental rap album guaranteed to blow the minds of fans of Blockhead, early RJD2 and, really, just sample-based production in general. Generously, Pilhofer’s original work is included on a second disc. Since today’s marketers appropriate producers’ beats for commercials, Thes One’s ad co-opting (some track titles: Northwestern Bell, Target, GBS Malt Liquor) is refreshingly subversive.
