Confrontational Camp

Objects in the Mirror are Closer Than They Appear (Artemis)
by Scott Hefflon

Public Enemy’s Chuck D (aka Mistachuck) and Professor Griff open the lyrical flood gates, using both hip hop and metal guitars to get the message across. As a fan of late ’80s/early ’90s hip hop (NWA, PE, Ice-T, and a handful of other now-legendary bands everyone still references), yet with the full knowledge that I am white, I can’t help but see Confrontation Camp as a scaled-back version of the original. Chuck and Griff still have the raps, but I’ve always enjoyed the jam-packed, sample-heavy, scratch-littered rages more than the chilled-out cruisers. And here, guitar-oriented fist-throwers like “Jailbreak,” “Brake the Law” and “Against the Elements” are too, ya know, derivative of rapcore chumps like Limp Bizkit and the rest, instead of showing them how it should be done. Not to get all bitchy, but like Ice T’s embarrassing Body Count, if rap wants to lift from metal, it really oughtta copy some of the better styles, not warmed-over nü metal trudges that were third-rate to begin with. “Jailbreak” is practically based on Living Color’s great riff in “Cult of Personality,” and that was how many years ago? So Chuck and Griff, welcome back and decent start here, but if you wanna show people what’s what, pick up a metal mag and find out who’s pushing the envelope.
(130 5th Ave. New York, NY 10011)