Hangar 18: Sweep the Leg

Hangar 18, comprised of Alaska, Windnbreeze, and DJ paWL has convinced me to do buy and listen to their first Multi-Platinum Debut Album. The funny thing is if you are waiting for me to tell you the title, the reality is that is the title. Three years the Definitive Jux artists have released their second effort entitled Sweep the Leg which takes us through a storyboard similar to that of Panacea’s Scenic Route, or the Roots, Game Theory. With boom bap beats, rapid delivery which sounds like the above photo and content worthy lyrics Sweep the Leg is an album that makes the odd ball or nerd of that high school class, the quiet freshmen in college, or the 25 year-old who is tired of working in a cube everyday aspire for more out of life.

On the prodcution side please don’t misread me when I say boom bap beats, because people take it back to the beginnings of hip hop which is always good because it shows they’ve done their research. The truth is as percussion heavy and in your face as the music is tracks like Sad which deals with the problematic issues of striving to be a family man but knowing if it is the right thing to do only to realize later it was. So as the beat starts off like the verse from the end and then travelling back to the begining along with the beat which goes displays a segment of what I assume to be the actual sample effectively displays the thought process behind the album as a whole. (Get it?) As the the album goes through what people seem to think about all in one day songs like Room to Breathe address the issues of what hip hop music and culture has structured to produce and create and Hangar explains
what that feels like when you naturally go a different route. In addition Hangar 18 expresses their bright side, amist all the garbage it’s ok to go after what you desire, tracks West Wing and Think Big give insight to those thoughts as well.

Sweep the Leg is definitely mood music but it definitely has the capabilities to take you there similar to Dead Prez’s Lets Get Free. I doubt this album will go multi-platinum but whose counting and who cares?