The Queens Street Life Revisited: Meyhem Lauren “7000 Thoughts”

Relative newcomer Meyhem Lauren's fierce Illmatic-like delivery and fixation on themes like contingency, ruination, and self-annihilation brings to mind the brief but memorable discography of fellow Queens rapper Ak Skills. While Meyhem's emotionally evocative, deceptively unrefined rhyme style is not easily mistaken for Ak's matter-of-fact late 90s delivery, both rappers borrow vocal and poetic techniques from the same source: the anxiously introspective exposition best exemplified by Nas's verse on "Life's A Bitch." On "7000 Thoughts," Meyhem channels Nasty Nas at his most poignant,  in a manner reminiscent of Ak's cautious explication of the pitfalls of street life on his lesser known songs "One Life To Live" and "One Thing Or Another," but also effectively evokes regret and pathos in a conversational tone that hearkens further back to one of Nas's principle influences, Tragedy Khadafi (formerly Intelligent Hoodlum).

Fans and critics of the rap genre are sometimes reluctant to assign praise to an artist whose style is immediately reminiscent of renowned masters. Rap's reception culture has long been famously dismissive of overt musical or poetic borrowing, but I subscribe to the school of thought that views this anti-biting stance as overreactive in certain cases, given rap artists' indebtedness to the acquisitive traditions of the blues idiom and their tendencies to construct songs and even verses from a pastiche of disparate source elements. Ak and Meyhem's derivations are strategically smarter and thus more artistically generative than the attempts made by lesser artists to crudely mimic general aspects of Nas's early style, (such has his cadence and somber tone) as if utilizing a tried and true stencil to trace superficially adequate, ultimately unremarkable verses.

In the case of Meyhem Lauren's "7,000 Thoughts," a cursory listen invites comparisons to Nas and even Nas's better imitators like Ak Skills. To some ears such a resemblance is an instant turn-off, indicative of a "non-progressive" or stagnant artistic approach or simply boring. However, Meyhem's rhymes are related in such a straightforward and down to earth  manner and recited with such emotive intensity that the poetic self he brings to the table, his likable populist voice, constitutes an innovation that distinguishes his style for the better in spite of lingering superficial similarities to the source material. Put another way, Mayhem isolates the right aspects of Nas's early style to extract and incorporate into his repertoire in much the same way a talented producer chooses to isolate the tiniest fraction of a record to best suit his vision for his new song.

Nas's verse on "Life's A Bitch" is tragicomic, perhaps bordering on depressing. After the listener's awe at Nas's verbal dexterity and perfectly situated use of internal rhyme in lines like "I switched my motto: instead of saying 'fuck tomorrow' / the buck that bought a bottle could've struck the lotto" subsides, he may well remain frozen and dumbstruck at the bleakness of the expressed sentiment. Ak Skills' verses are similarly inundated with pessimistic and remorseful musings that take center stage amidst lines of impersonal criminal braggadocio. Meyhem engages in bittersweet contemplation, spending the majority of the song nervously pondering whether clearly negative and even seemingly positive life decisions may have unintentionally impeded his quest for wealth and happiness. But he converses more directly with the listener by dropping appropriately sparse rhymes, posing sensible rhetorical questions, and eschewing preachiness and stoicism in favor of a conversational tone. This matters.

"7,000 Thoughts" is an affecting, unpretentious introduction to an accessible, thoughtful personality and a new conversation, a long-awaited follow-up to Tragedy's mournful meditations on the remixes of "Grand Groove" and "Street Life" and most importantly the kind of present-day Queens rap jam that just feels right.

Meyhem Lauren "7,000 Thoughts"

Thanks to unkut.com for putting me on to this artist and song. Get acquainted here.