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View ProfilesPublished May 15, 2024 at 10:00 a.m.
(AfterLyfe Music, CD, digital)
In a genre full of hard workers, Boston rapper Termanology has distinguished himself as one of the most prolific artists in the game. A lifelong genre purist who's been hustling rhymes since high school, he celebrates his legacy on Time Is Currency, his latest, and 50th, album. That is not a typo, but it is one hell of an achievement. It also happens to be a huge win for one of Vermont's most respected hip-hop talents — Burlington's Nastee, who produced the album.
"I'm what Dre is to Compton, or Jay is to Brooklyn, and Scarface to Houston," Termanology raps on "Stay Out the Way (feat. Solene & Fabeyon)." It's a fair claim. Few New England rappers are as visible, and it's debatable whether any of them can match his sheer output. These days, Termanology is simply a historical fact, a king of the underground who's been around forever. But it's instructive to consider how he got here.
Back when rap culture was aflame with debates over the infamous 2006 Nas album Hip Hop Is Dead, a young Daniel Carrillo had zero doubts about the future. He was just getting started. Hot off an appearance in The Source's legendary "Unsigned Hype" column in October 2005, the rapper was flooding the market with his "Hood Politics" mixtape series and laying the groundwork for his 2008 debut album, Politics as Usual.
To casual observers, it may seem strange to talk about the "debut album" of an artist who already had nearly a dozen releases. The dividing line here is albums versus mixtapes. The latter are fast and raw and involve a lot of uncleared samples and classic instrumentals (and, ideally, a lot of the DJ screaming and scratching).
By contrast, Politics as Usual was the product of years of careful work. Clearly patterned after Nas' 1994 album Illmatic, it featured production credits that were an A-list of New York City talent, including Easy Mo Bee, Large Professor and Pete Rock. It was a landmark LP for Boston hip-hop and the blueprint for everything Termanology has done since. His quality control as an independent artist is exacting, and his albums are always carefully calibrated experiences. The man may work fast, but he never cuts corners.
The same is true of his bar game. Early on, Termanology distinguished himself with his jigsaw-tight lyrical workouts, a mix of Big Pun and Big L, all rhyme schemes and punch lines. His studio albums, however, have always had a heavy West Coast influence, and he often cites Dr. Dre's classic The Chronic as one of his biggest inspirations. While his music is melodic and funky, he stays absolutely true to the drum-break aesthetics of '90s East Coast hip-hop.
Termanology's flow has relaxed notably over the years. He can still machine-gun the bars when he wants to, as on "Get Em (feat. Kool G Rap & Lil Fame)," where he steps it up to match a prime Kool G Rap verse. But he's equally comfortable laid back in the groove, and some of his best verses here draw from Texas and Los Angeles more than the five boroughs.
While Time Is Currency is a major hip-hop release, period, it's also got deep roots here in Vermont. Producer Nastee is a Burlington legend who has been shaping the state's growing hip-hop scene for decades. An accomplished beat composer and audio engineer, he has quietly launched an independent label, AfterLyfe Music. It's mostly been an in-house imprint for his releases with Konflik, who is often hailed as the 802's greatest MC. With this newest release, though, the upstart label stakes a much bigger claim.
No question, Nastee is a born self-promoter. But when he says Time Is Currency is "probably one of the biggest releases connected to Vermont hip-hop," he's not stretching it one single inch. Since the album dropped on May 2, it has topped the iTunes Hip-Hop/Rap charts, racked up six figures in Spotify streams and earned a million YouTube views for the lead music video, "Uptown Fly." In our fractured, distraction-prone digital age, that's what success looks like. Our tiny state doesn't have a lot of artists competing at that level, aside from North Ave Jax and the 99 Neighbors cinematic universe.
The success of Time Is Currency is proof there's still a robust global demand for good old-fashioned boom-bap fundamentalist rap. It also proves that longevity in the genre looks very different these days. For decades, people have repeated the accepted wisdom that hip-hop was a youth-driven phenomenon, but it's hard to miss that the youths are having a mighty hard time moving units in 2024. Meanwhile, old-head rappers are headlining festivals, dropping new (physical, actual, real) albums and gaining new fans. Most of them are doing it all independently, too.
While Termanology and Nastee are big stories in their own rights, I can't shake the suspicion that the bigger headline here may prove to be the launch of AfterLyfe Music. Nastee has paid dues across the industry, building a reputation for authenticity and high standards. All that work is going to start paying huge dividends soon. I won't steal any thunder here, but the AfterLyfe imprint has some big announcements coming before the year is over.
For now, Time Is Currency is 44 minutes of top-notch throwback hip-hop, a full-course meal cooked up by two masters. What's most impressive about this monumental album is the amount of effort Termanology still puts in. This is a victory lap that sounds every bit as hungry as his debut album did.
Whether he's swapping classic conspiracy theories with Reks on the crushing "PSP" or penning immaculate concept tracks such as "Tell Me" and "Lied 2," not a single beat is wasted here. In an industry where rappers tend to clock out decades before they actually retire, it's remarkable how much Termanology is out to prove himself, every time. Then again, that's exactly what put him on the map.
As he jokes on "Fifty," the triumphant opening cut, "Will I make a hundred albums? Nobody knows. But for now, I'm Mayweather, baby, 50 and 0." Here's hoping we'll all still be here to check out that 100th album when it inevitably drops in 2036.
Time Is Currency is available on all major platforms. Limited-edition CDs are available at termanologyst.bandcamp.com.
Tags: Album Review, Termanology, Time Is Currency
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