Foreign Heights

Many years ago, I became bored with the hip hop scene here in the united states, its not that I lost my love for it, I shall never do that, I just felt that the scene had degraded to nothing more then a marketing tool filled with 3 to 5 minute adds that crammed as many high priced products into each video and each verse as possible, I felt that was insulting to the listener and to legacy of hip hop as a whole. I got tired of seeing "artists" like 50 Cent and Nelly who base their sales more on a faked image and songs about shoes and 5 minute songs that are a verse and a half of nonsense lyrics and a hook repeated over and over, become multi million seller wile countless artists who take the time to well craft each track lyrically and beatwise and try to make every album and experience that doesn't insult the listener, are starving. I don't get it, and thats why I turned outside of the United States for hip hop, I figured hip hop is global, there has to be some good stuff out there right? Boy was I right! You've all seen me post albums by artists from Denmark, Norway, Canada, Trinidad but living in Denmark, I got afew coming up soon from the UK and Sweden even, but when you think of Hip Hop, you don't normally think of the land down under (where women roll and men plunder!), but believe it or not, the Australian hip hop scene is blowing up and with the power of the internet and networking places like myspace and the like, is set to possibly take the world in a maelstrom that merges that well crafted underground american sound (living legends, ect) and the old school hip hop feel of beats that make you wanna blast them with the bass up, and enough aussie slang to make you know where they're from.

At the front of this charge are a group called Foreign Heights out of Sydney NSW, its a "supergroup" of sorts, all three members are solo artists in their own rights, Nick Toth is their DJ and sometimes male emcee, the beautiful Maya Jupiter and needing alittle more mic time MC Trey do most of the rapping, they're a sort of Salt'n'Pepa with a male DJ if I had to find something that most would know to describe them. And I must say, I do love them as a group, its very hard to find their solo work though, that kind of let me down because I was looking forward to it, but I shall endeavor to hunt and eventually bring to all of you whatever I find, I think they are that damn good both alone and as a group, thats a big thing from me, because I do hate the concept of most supergroups, for one, even a foreign one to grab me, trust me, its good.

The album itself, is self titled "Foreign Heights" and it kicks you in the face from the very start, the first track "It Goes On" (with Mr. Zux) though a normal crew flow track, blasts you out the box right at the first note and doesn't stop for a minute, flows beautifully into the second track "Get Yours" a track about how everyone needs to stand up on their own and get their own in life is a great guitar and scratch track that will keep your head nodding the whole time and singing along by the end, it flows right into "The Feelin" a great chill hip hop track that is great to just sit back and chill too the beats are light and relaxed and the lyrics are great too, it actually compliments the previous two tracks really well showing they can chill as well as bring the hard beats, excellently done, "Main Street" speeds things up abit more still a chill style but faster then the one before, its a track about where they each grew up, they all rap about what life is like and mention various things about the areas and life there, its really a nice track, the lyrics will miss most though if you can't listen fast or find a lyric sheet, still a great track. The next track "Mess with my Flow" is a nice crew freestyle track, featuring Maya, Trey and Eternia, I've heard of eternia before, I can't remember if she's Canadian or Australian, or maybe there is two, i'm not really sure, its still a great track with all three ladies they all flow rather tight and the beat is a great bass guitar driven track. The rest of the tracks on this 13 track disc are all rather great too, there are afew other guest shots from fellow aussie rappers of various sorts, all rather good on various levels, afew other stand out tracks near the end are "Journey On" which sounds almost like Timberland on Bubba Sparxxx first album, the song itself is a very deep track that seems very biographical and uplifting, a very nice addition and it was smartly placed near the middle of the album, "In His World" is a love song that reminds me of a mix of TLC (the Crazy Sexy Cool era) and Natile Ozborn and Urban Underground (notably their song "True Love"), and "LaLa" a very uplifting song about keeping your head up and not letting life get you down, I do love when they mix tracks of these sorts into albums that are mostly kick ass club ready hip hop, it shows just how well versed the artists are, a true joy to listen too.

As a whole, I was surprised at how great this album really is, I got it passed my way and was told to give it a listen, I wasn't expecting what I got, I love when that happens, when an album surprises me in a good way. Always a welcome surprise. I'd say give this a shot if you're a fan of REAL hip hop, stuff you don't hear on the radio and doesn't rely on gun and drug talk or degrading women to get noticed, if you're a fan of rappers that just wanna rap and flow and live for beats and lyrics that are real and honest and hard at the same time. Seriously give it a shot, it'll surprise you.


Artist: Foreign Heights
Album: Self Titles
Genre: Hip Hop, Aussie Hop Hop, Abstract Hip Hop, Beats

Foreign Heights by Foreign Heights

By BC