What happened to Zion-I? The Oakland backpacker duo that produced
such eminently conventional albums as Deep Water Slang V2.0 and
True & Livin’ is nowhere present in this year’s The Take
Over, which skews closer to electronica than hip-hop. Gone are the
old personal-essay-format raps and bland spiritual musings that used to
be Zion-I’s stock in trade. Instead we get drum ‘n’ bass party jams
like “DJ DJ” and the minimalist 808 track “Juicy Juice,” which recall
an older era of hip-hop in which the emcee served as a hype man, rather
than a lyricist (“DJ DJ” is nearly void of words entirely). The Take
Over is, in fact, a producers’ album, wherein all imagination and
experimental energy lies in the beats, while the substantive content of
the raps ceases to matter.
Thus, frontman Zumbi (aka Steve Gaines) becomes a sideman, playing
second chair to DJ and producer AmpLive (Anthony Anderson). And
granted, Amp’s maturation is what makes The Take Over wonderful.
Five years ago he was making pedestrian R&B grooves that served as
wallpaper for whatever Zumbi (then called MC Zion) was talking about at
the time; now he’s creating gems like “Peppermint Patty,” a wallop of
snare drum and ’70s horn samples that adds extra wattage to Zumbi’s
fable about a girl gone bad. The title track, characterized by its
chunky swing beat, is pure brillo.
Think of it this way: If Zion-I were a jazz band, then Zumbi would
be part of the rhythm section: He spends the better part of each track
singing vamps or adding vocal fills, while his DJ enjoys a long,
sprawling solo. The words “take over” may sound like a political
slogan, as indicated by Zumbi’s shrill intro: This system does not
work for us, so we must take this system over and make it work for
us. But the real takeover amounts to a shift in artistic direction,
wherein the DJ supplants the rapper. It actually works. (Gold Dust
Media)
