Choke full of hip-hop surprises
Whoever said hip-hop was dead was wrong, it's just hibernating in Canada. Chokeules (also a member of Toolshed, who are currently on hiatus) has combined pristine production courtesy of Timbuktu, with strong lyrical abilities, and has almost paid his dues as an up and coming MC through a sea of mediocrity. Having worked with Canadian hip hop heavy weights such as Swollen Members and Ghettosocks, as well as El Da Sensei, Aceyalone, and Devin The Dude, Chokeules has gained a following from devout hip hop heads in the Canadian rap scene.
Chokeules sophomore album entitled Hypergraphia, blasts out track after track, firing off rounds of lyrics without taking a moment to compose himself, which in this case may be the best idea. Intricate rhyme schemes, dense wordplay focusing on self-introspection and the state of modern hip-hop, Choke hits the nail on the head by stating the obvious “too many MC's, not enough skills.”
With the popularization and mainstream saturation of hip hop throughout the 2000s it's easy to hear the once raw and uncommercialized sound of hip hop has almost entirely lost its appeal. Chokeules has brought back what should have been brought back a long time ago. Sampled beats, and a supreme old school nature.
This being a commercial effort, Choke has chosen to ease into mainstream rap sticking to his Toolshed roots and not straying away from the true art of hip-hop production. Timbuktu's production cannot go without notice, as sampling in the hip-hop community has begun to be a dying art, with the highest selling hip-hop artists such as Kanye West, Lil' Wayne and Jay-Z, moving more towards synthesizers and even - collar tug - auto tune.
If we're being real here for a second though, which I know Choke would appreciate, I think he'd like to hear this; where his vocal style lacks in raw skill, it makes up for it in its hip hop intellectuality. Choke has done his hip-hop homework; he just needs to apply what he's learned from all his predecessors onto the mic.
