Antwon – Fantasy Beds (2011) [Self-Released] // Grade: B+

Alright, so I just met this dude (along with Himself from Shadowrun Click) a few nights ago. Himself played a low key show in San Francisco, and Antwon was the hypeman. We mobbed around for the evening and kicked it with some of Antwon’s homies, and while I didn’t have 20 on the 40 bag, I did have couple peace missiles in my hat. Anyways, on “40 Bag” — the mixtape’s unofficial opener as there’s an intro, but the intro has some raps on it — Antwon starts out “I once smoked black tar at 10:16 McKean now I live life like America’s next wet dream.” And, that line kinda sets the tone for the record. The verse goes on toe describe his ride to work at Kinko’s getting high on the bus to deal with his bullshit job. But, it doesn’t end with the obvious shit because Twon goes on to speak on a whole range of the existential challenges of 2011 life as a young man in America. He does a lot of drugs and he thinks a lot, and his life is filled up with experience measured against comprehension. This translates pretty seamlessly to his raps as he takes us in and out of conscience, contemplation, context, and the converse. Twon weaves a variety of perspectives through a variety of moments often looping back through the moment in order to modify or emphasize what was already said. It’s word wizard shit.

Playing the genealogy game in California is way easier than Alabama. And Antwon’s San Jose location places him in a genealogy that is varied, outrageous, and incredibly impactful. While Aantwon doesn’t really sound like anyone except Aantwon you can see how he figures into the Bay Area’s incredibly vibrant, and longstanding hip hop community. Here comes another dude doing raps that sound familiar, yet are wholly unprecedented. But, even as he clearly figures into the Bay’s rich hip hop narrative, he doesn’t really fit neatly within it. Much like Main Attrakionz — another of the Bay’s most recent emerging hip hop acts, and a Blogin fave — Aatnwon is somewhat of an anomaly. Too friendly to pop sensibilities to be backpack, too aware to be ignorant, too effortlessly cool to be nerd rap. He is, merely, a human of the times making great raps, and he’s in the best place in the world to do it.

I’m not gonna give away much about Fantasy Beds, you really should go into it without being tainted. The whole of the tape is great, and Aantwon does a great job of balancing a lot of different sentiments. I guess if anything that’s the best way to describe him. You never know which element of Aantwon you’ll get on a track, and regardless of what you do get, you’re liable to wind up with something entirely different before the end of the song. It’s refreshing to hear another voice that is using rap as a means to speak, and create great human art, rather than merely rapping as posturing in order to pretend to be some unlbemished idealized individual. The fantasy of Fantasy Beds is the total realization of the self, not the perfect realization of the self. Don’t sleep, download it now.

Fantasy Beds Mixtape by Antwon____

- Zachg