I’ve been listening to the new P.O.S record Never Better every day for the last week, and I’ll probably listen to it every day this week as well. It’s not too often that I get so sucked in by a hip hop record, but I can’t put this one down. It’s a shame P.O.S had to come to town last week the same night as Meshuggah or I would have seen him in a heartbeat. Charles talked about P.O.S. and the Twin Cities in an Up & Coming this week:

Most metropolitan areas in America cannot successfully produce black artists who have one foot completely in a white art (in the case of P.O.S., it is punk) and the other foot in a black art (for P.O.S., it is rap). And what is amazing about P.O.S.'s work (and this can also be said about Prince's coupling of funk and rock) is that there is no tension between the forms. Without a hint of gimmickry, rap and punk find a perfect meeting point in P.O.S.

I would be kidding myself if I didn’t acknowledge that this is probably the number one reason why this album is so great to me. Unlike most other rappers, P.O.S. actually speaks my language. He’ll slyly reference the Big Lebowski mid flow, he chants along to lyrics from “Five Corporations” by Fugazi, he has the singer from one of my favorite bands, a band that is still relatively obscure —the Velvet Teen— singing on the title track of his record. And aside from the fact that we can share pop culture references, he’s a really good rapper as well. His flow is fast but meticulous, his lyrics are humorous and insightful, and his beats are innovative and interesting.

P.O.S. - Savion Glover

Listening to Never Better also reminded me that it’s been ten years now since the first time I was introduced to Rhymesayers, when my brother went off to college and dated a hip hop girl from Minneapolis. She made me a mix with this song on it:

It’s still one of my favorite tracks, a decade later. Minnesota does good work.