Olas un Bekons

Too Bad It's Almost Good [Part 1] - The Twin$

Added 2020-11-23 19:48:28 +0000 UTC

Hiya everyone,

there are two types of crate diggers - ones who dig stuff they love and know, and others who kinda get entangled into that 'surprise me' mode when you just cop something you never heard about and partially hope it's rare, but also good. Well, I'm more of a latter, and sometimes I strike good, sometimes I got good+rare (when I got this in a random record shop in Berlin for 4.20), but sometimes I get something that's rare but not much to my liking. So I got this CD this summertime for a small money, it was not listed on discogs, and I could not find any info while googling when on spot. So, heck it, let's go.

Getting home and thinking, there should have been few instant red flags. Main one was the album cover, and that they had dollar signs in multiple track names listed on back cover. Talking bout those covers, the template was kinda a 90's fad. Something many do not like to recall today. It's not like I'm getting sick when I see one, but I guess I prefer other means of visual representation (sorry, Master P & No Limit fam). But ok, price was low so I got it, listed it on discogs and started to listen...

You know, the biggest highlight of this CD is that guys are very patriotic. They are Armenian and never get tired of reminding us they are Armenian natives who emigrated to the US. I, myself, come from a small nation with negative net-migration to more developed EU Western world countries. Therefore, I have faced the many facets of patriotism, nationalism, ethnicity and population dynamic. And you know, many times I have witnessed my emigree compatriots talk bad about my country and how politicians made them to go away. They might be wrong to some extent, but as labor migrants they don't know the tragedy of forced migration. The Twin$ album is from 1999, less than a decade since the USSR collapse, and a formation of many hybrid governments with friends and foes (stuff's called post-Soviet transformation). I don't know when these guys emigrated, but must have been from 1991-1994 when ethnic and military tensions in the region must have been at it's most volatile point.

So the biggest advantage of this record is patriotism. And a peaceful album about patriotism is always great. Other part of tracks is about gangsta lifestyle. May have been added to fit more into the popular hip-hop bad boy narrative. Maybe I am into intelligent ish, but I would have preferred more peaceful patriotism, less money making wannabe-gangsta music. But that's what this album consists of.

So, if wannabe G's, is a huge minus (since such albums were popping up left and right in 90's, and eventually many got tired of sub-par gangsta albums), the biggest one, is that I don't feel the flow of Twin$. And if the lyrics seem OK, the delivery always kills the record.

Therefore, don't like the flow, I don't feel part of the lyrics. But I love the traditionalism. Makes me think about people and ethnicities, refugees, military conflicts and how few people are less fortunate than others.

Peace to everyone and stay safe!

Not taking sides, trying to appreciate everyone.

Album can be found in these folders, along with today's batch of other rekkidz.