Young Miss America

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Probably as a response to the standard mainstream brawling, avant hop too frequently opts for a mellower, subdued attitude. What a luck then, that Gold Chains tends to be raw, edgy and (in more than a sense) subversive, thus adding the benefit of true musical underground to these traditional rap virtues. If you're interested in hip hop at all you'd find this cocktail intriguing at the least.

Gold Chains (aka Topher LaFata) is a talented San Francisco MC/musician known for his (s)exploding tracks on Tigerbeat and Orthlorng Musork labels ('I Come From San Francisco', 'The Wonderful Girls of Hypno' etc). Compared to these you'll find the tracks on 'Young Miss America' more diverse in rhythm (breakbeat, big beat, rock and disco besides hip hop) while (what a pity!) somewhat tamer in sound sections. Still, appearing less subversive sonically doesn't necessarily hinder him from doing damage in other departments.

The general feeling of this album, then, is that of a generic excursion taken in favor of a sonic one, but despite that there are some pretty decent tracks here. 'Let's Get It On' with its (vocally) female fuelled electroclash-disco is perhaps most surprising of them. The vehemently social ("you're all about the green, I'm all about the red") 'Revolution' finally turns from stomping hip hop into house, and it ain't the only track undergoing a generic change here. As for the complaint that "GC isn't packing dance floors because it's a white guy rapping", well, we'll still see about that.

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