So there’s this rapper in Australia right.. Sri-Lankan Australian in origin, going under the nom de guerre Pataphysics. He is a composer, accomplished trumpet player, MPC player & what are we going to call this guy? – ‘activist’? He makes some of the most politically fervent Rap you will ever hear, period. Long’ long since the current trend (very much forced by recent events), this guy has been ploughing into subjects that are deigned too sensitive or controversial for sustained debate. His extraordinary lyrical & research-enriched understandings mean he delivers startlingly detailed delvings that are more akin to a cutting-edge, veteran political-columnist. What the fuck did he just say? Did he just say that? Yeah, he did. The most recent recording, Tip of the Spear escalates the conflict…it’s an extravaganza that locks into combat with many of the most complex maladies of the current globalized times ongoing disaster in acute detail. Shit that many people are not even aware of, or able to hold an informed & coherent confabulation on such as TTIP & sub-slavery trade deals, dehumanization through technological retardation, corporate capture & entryism, economic treason, shadow banking, kleptocracy, surveillance capitalism, commercial corruption, humanitarian homogenization etc, are all exploded under the micro-lens. Exposing historic & current state abuse of power & mega injustice are also a recurrent vigilance, frequently with an edge of analysis & micro-studied factual accuracy that is screamingly formidable & brave. In this sense, Physics is less like a thorn in the side of the transnational-serial-rapists & their conniving political counterparts & more like an anti-personnel mine going off at waist height within kissing distance. The problem for the establishment/’cocksuckers that be’ is that everything he is saying is veritably true & potentially scandalous, so it’s best to just quietly ignore it lest it bring heat to the wretches perpetrating such vast criminal ills, who’s survival/revenues depends on subterfuge, mendacity, deflection & camouflage.
Physics content & lyrical abilities have never been in any doubt, but I have struggled sometimes with the softness of his delivery & the mildness of the accompanying music. This is not, at all, raw or rugged…it’s suave, easy & on occasions even smooth. Like cyanide-dipped hollow-points loaded into a baby-blue pistol with a Barbie design, the blow is somewhat softened by the delivery device. I assume this is to reach as many people as possible & increase the audience remit. The message is dead-the-fuck-serious, content explosive & radical, but the medium is easy-going, at times, commercial even. However, this latest album definitely has the best overall production (this guy writes all his own shit). It’s still very accessible, but there’s some twists & challenging embellishments buried in the coffee-shop-friendly finalization. These elaborations manifest with some mad off-beat syncopation’s, that whilst working in 4/4 massively stretch the calculus. For certain, sonically, Tip Of The Spear is by far the best he has produced so far & has greatly advanced the musical-front carrying this crucial message/information.
There must be some other rappers discoursing such vividly lofty & system-thrashing, chronically political Rap at this level? & dealing deftly with topics & crushingly unpleasant & urgent political besiegements emanating from the current state of corporate misrule & obtuse of power. But, I don’t actually know of anyone that is dusting those pricks like Pataphysics & confronting these emergencies at such a perceptively tight caliber. The geezers a fuckin’ sentinel.
Check his shit out & support him, because 100% they don’t want him politicizing, informing people & documenting the casualties of our sick worlds (& especially in his case, Australia’s) corporacentric sham-governments & their cavalier corruption & criminality.
Released-2017
Label-9 Gates