Camu Tao - King of Hearts (2010) [Def Jux] // Grade: D+

Lets call it the Andre 3000 syndrome, that being when a dude known primarily as a rapper, puts the rhyming to the left in favor of trying their hand at something more melodic and/or esoteric. We’re talking about putting down that cordless mic and instead getting a nice mic stand so you can croon for everyone like them rat pack dudes did. Shout out to Sammy Davis. People who’ve recently caught this bug: Kanye West with 808s & Heartbreak, Dose One with his group Subtle, Lil Wayne with Rebirth and obviously Andre 3000 with The Love Below. Results of this kind of artistic experimentation have been across the board, they’re either complete crap (Lil Wayne) or halfway there and super vain (Andre 3000) or they’re really successful (everyone else listed). Camu Tao is the latest “rappa ternt sanga” to try this with King of Hearts. Unfortunately, his new album King of Hearts comes much closer to sounding like Lil Wayne than it does Kanye West.

Camu had always been known for fluid polysyllabic rhymes as part of the Def Jux family. He epitomized their aesthetic by being underground and intellectual, without ever coming off pretentious or effete. On this album though that’s all gone and instead dude shows a new style that’s less influenced by New York grittiness and more by the British post punk movement. On starting the album with “Be a Big Girl”, I had to check I was listening to the right album. The track features minimal electronic production that sounds much like something early Depeche Mode might’ve thrown away, while Camu’s vocals are reminiscent of an off key and heavily distorted Prince. While someone must find that combination interesting, I can not say that I do. It sounds like the bedroom album a second year art student would make after his girlfriend left him during her brief stint as a lesbian. Too harsh? Check “Fonny Valentine” and tell me that’s not a song that could follow a performance of Interior Semiotics.

The shame here is that when Camu Tao actually check’s in with rapping on this album it actually kind of works. “Ind of the Worl” has a simple beat knocking about through too much distortion, it’s like every other song on the album. But, when he actually raps over it, it stops sounding like bad Joy Division covers and instead sounds like some new shit that you’ve not heard before. “Plot a Little” flips the script and has a Def Jukie beat with Camu whine rapping over it, which while not the best thing I’ve heard recently, is enjoyable. I refer you to the previous sentence for my opinion the entirety of Kid Cudi’s catalog to date.

Sadly, Camu Tao passed away in 2008 so we wont get any more work from him. The dude was clearly talented but it feels like this album was a weird transitive state between his rap career and something else entirely. If he could’ve taken what was present on “Plot a Little” and “Ind of the Worl” and molded that into his new template it could’ve been exceptional.

- Behold the Destroyer