FM Earl is the first solo rap project by Minnesotan artist Kevin Musliner. I’m familiar with some of his previous work but I have never heard rapping like I have on Over Influenced. The album contains a whopping thirty-three tracks. There aren’t nearly that many songs on the album however.
Sometimes you will find on hip-hop albums that a lot of filler is thrown into an album. Tracks which are under thirty seconds and at their best feel like an intro to a song. Musliner goes really hard in the paint with a lot of shorter tracks. You might have a couple of tracks like this in a row and half of them just felt random. There are recording snippets of everything, from Muhammad Ali to Breaking Bad, to the Looney Tunes soundtrack and to George Bush. I wasn’t really sure what a lot of these snippets were adding to the experience. They just seemed to be pop culture references. There are some solid songs that are pretty straightforward, relying on 4/4 type beats and built on samples. One of the highlights was “Venice (prod. GYVUS) feat. FM Earl” which had a ’90s aesthetics. At its best there are some similarities to A Tribe Called Quest and it is a loose, playful and sunny song. There are some old school vinyl scratches. Musliner is at his best when he is promoting good vibes. On “Double.Perfect (prod. j^p^n) feat. FM Earl” he goes darker and the vocal affectation sounded like LL Cool J. My favorite snippet of sound was “Quick Quiet (Prod. Nicolas Sales).” This album felt like it was wearing its influences on its sleeve but in a good way.. A lot of the songs felt like tips of the hat to a specific era in hip-hop or a specific artist. Some of it works better then others but in general I thought his best moments had the most in common with groups like The Pharcyde and Tribe. Take a listen.
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