Together, Georgia Anne Muldrow and Declaime (real name: Dudley Perkins) make funk-driven hip-hop, with an emphasis on political consciousness and civil-rights issues. They're as concerned with fostering change in America -- Declaime is stridently anti-Obama -- as moving bodies on dance floors. The name of their recent collaborative album, SomeOthaShip, pays homage to George Clinton and his spaceship motif, and pairs up Muldrow's experimental beats with Declaime's tense, confrontational lyrics.
An early highlight of the record, "Connect Game," was produced by beat maker Black Milk, a worthy successor to his late Detroit affiliate J Dilla. Built around twinkling, cascading synths and a stark, chaotic drum-machine beat, the song kicks off with Declaime's verse. He describes a festive evening gone wrong; one that begins with drinking and smoking but devolves into a brawl. "Old-schoolers call it a rumble," he raps, adding, "that's the way of the jungle." With the help of a verse from rapper Kazi, the song's protagonists seek a celestial union with the spaceship -- the SomeOthaShip of the album's title -- suggesting that outer space, and not Earth, might be where true solace is found.
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