Album Review: Cas Metah – Guest Room

Introductory Personal Remarks

This album deserves more recognition.

I first heard Cas Metah on Syntax Records' Night Owls 3 compilation released in 2007. His song "Back" on that album always stood out to me for its great flow, not to mention the eerie production from MattmaN.

Fast forward to 2009, when Guest Room is released. I'm previewing the song "I Will Go (w/ LMNO and Manchild)" on the Illect Recordings or Sphere of Hip-Hop Facebook page—I can't remember which—and I remember LMNO saying "I doubt Christ would have called himself a Christian." A little bit jarring of a sentiment, but also interesting for its novelty.

After hearing a bit more from this release over the years, I decide that Guest Room deserves to be added to my collection. So I place an order for a CD through Sphere of Hip-Hop (along with One by The Battery, not to mention a limited edition The Battery hoodie) during Christmas break in 2012.

The package arrives in January 2013. I'm not in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan anymore like I was on the Christmas break; now I'm back at Thetis Island, British Columbia, where I'm attending Capernwray Harbour Bible Centre.

That was 13 years ago, and I enjoyed Guest Room a lot at the time. This is still an excellent album. Let's talk about it.

Actually Talking About the Album

As the album title implies, Guest Room is a Cas Metah album featuring several guest artists. The list is very impressive. On the beats you have MattmaN, Theory Hazit, 4th Disciple, Vintage, Deacon the Villain, Dust, and Dert—to name a few. On the rhymes you have Masta Ace, LMNO, Manchild, Playdough, Lightheaded, and Witchdoctor. Once again, that's only a fraction of all the guest emcees that appear on here. Guest Room is booked full with talent!

There's not a bad song on this entire album, which is impressive considering it has 20 tracks. Looking through the track listing, the first song that really jumps out to me though is "Told You So (w/ Theory Hazit, JustMe, and Masta Ace)." If you're familiar with Theory Hazit, you know he sets the bar high in terms of quality. Not only does he provide some nice boom bap production here, but also a ridiculous opening verse. JustMe contributes an effective hook, and Masta Ace and Cas Metah both have great verses. Cas brings the quality control when he says "I'm not trying to be rude, but most dudes I used to bump growing up, new stuff sucks." I'm hardly overstating it when I say that this is hip-hop at its best.

Next up is "Real (w/ Mouth Warren and Holmskillit)." Holmskillit contributes some of my favourite lyrics on the album:

Started out genuine then found a foreign frequency / as if the prodigal son, squandering your gifts with strangers and danger who live by lies and myths / superstition, zodiac, big-bang theories / Disconnected from your roots, disrespecting the truth

I've already talked a little about "I Will Go (w/ LMNO and Manchild)," but the production from Vintage also deserves mention for its haunting organ and surf-rock tremolo picking. This song's a standout.

If I had to pick a song with my favourite Cas Metah verse, it might be "2nd Second (w/ Every Day Martyrs and Deuce Complex)." Cas never sounds bad, but he rhymes with a certain aggression here that sounds especially cool. The verses from Mouth Warren and Griffin are both very good as well.

Most of Guest Room sounds like underground hip-hop, but there are stylistic detours from time to time. "Laying the Foundation (w/ Lightheaded)" is jazz rap, while "This Can't Be True (w/ T-mo Goodie and Jawz of Life)" and "Cream of the Crop (w/ Witchdoctor)" have more of a southern flavour.

Lyrically, there's a heavy emphasis on clever wordplay and "rhyming for the sake of rhyming" throughout the record. (That's not intended to sound negative.) Having said that, there are a few songs on Guest Room with more consistent and substantive themes. One of them is "Get Right (w/ Soul P. and MotionPlus)," which focuses on self-destructive habits and the hope of turning away from them.

Conclusion

I can easily say that this is one of my favourite hip-hop albums. You won't want to miss out on hearing it! Guest Room is available on Bandcamp, along with Cas Metah's more recent material.

Mars ILL – "Monotone"

I have been thinking about this song a lot lately. Mars ILL is perhaps my favourite music artist, and there's plenty to enjoy about "Monotone." The sampled piano sounds with the vinyl crackling in the background is one of its charming characteristics, as is the first verse with its use of assonance. The scratching is also very impressive. But perhaps the best thing about "Monotone" is verse two, which includes 20 initialisms. This song is truly a lyrical feast.

Philosophical Rap Lyrics

Rap music relies on words to a degree that other genres often don't. This gives it an advantage in terms of precision and topical exploration. This post shares some rap songs that either mention philosophers by name or allude to philosophical ideas.

Help – "Consciousness"

This track is taken from the 2012 album A Viper in the Mind, which is written from the perspective of a schizophrenic philosopher on his deathbed. "Consciousness" is impressive in its breadth, calling attention to the Buddhist teaching of the non-self, the nature of time, and a skeptical epistemology.

Eyedea & Abilities – "Color My World Mine"

"He once saw a painting that told his whole life story / And I realize that I'm not real / God just imagined me."

This reminds me of what I read about Jonathan Edwards in John W. Cooper's book Panentheism: the Other God of the Philosophers, the gist of it being that, on Edwards' view, God’s sovereignty is so strong that creation in its various forms are ideas in God's mind.

"Color My World Mine" confuses me in its conception of God. Apart from the panentheism already alluded to, there also seem to be themes of polytheism and pantheism.

Man of War – "Warman"

Man of War mentions Plato and Socrates at 1:58.

Sintax the Terrific – "Isaac"

Sintax mentions Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling at 1:24.

Mars ILL – "Breathe Slow"

Manchild mentions Aristotle at 0:52.

Mars ILL – "Tales from Cloud 7"

Manchild mentions Socrates at 0:46.

BK & Associates – "Frisky"

Sivion mentions ancient philosophy at 0:43.

Homeboy Sandman – "The Carpenter"

Homeboy Sandman mentions Dostoevsky and Tolstoy at 1:23.

the blackSoil project – "it ain't the shadow"

The lyric "It ain't the shadow, it's the substance that I'm after" could be a reference to Plato's cave.