By Deuce

If you ever wonder what happened to subterranean underground hip hop, then give Noveliss’ Book of Changes a whirl. The ten-track album is lost deep in the netherworld beneath the concrete, with no aspirations for club play or anything remotely mainstream.

Such a vector, of course, is decidedly refreshing in an era in which rare, rare is the emcee who dares to “rhyme” over a track that’s quicker than about 85 BPM—and that may be pushing it. Quite simply, it’s easy to rap double time to every such slow beat, with the high hats providing all the energy one’s lyrics don’t, and still get a shipload of fans.

Noveliss—who’s coming out the D—inverts this paradigm with a flow that seemingly hastens the faster the tracks get. Such an assertion shouldn’t be taken as a disavowal for his propensity to rhyme over mid-tempo or even slower tracks, which he does on the leadoff “Empty” (which likely sounds more cool-out oriented, and slower than it actually is, because of the dearth of drums).

But he’s one of the chosen few who actually rhymes at the pace of the music, and does so with a deftness that requires paying attention to for a musically challenging experience that’s sorely missing in most contemporary compositions. You’ve got to hear this man kick paradoxes like “to be completely fully empty”, which he does on “Empty”.

Plus, his thought process on his rhymes and songwriting is certainly atypical compared to your weekend club fare. He’s got a song entitled “Sincerity and Reverence”, for example, in which he rides deep chords routinely using four-syllable words like ‘benevolent’ which are certainly out of the range of your typical rapper pushing product these days.

The production (courtesy of Dixon Hill) is heavily sample laden, not the soulful variety popularized by neighboring Chicago game givers a couple decades ago, but the old fashioned, dusty piano loops and distant horns that make the drums—themselves the antithesis of the clear, crisp sound dominating playlists everywhere—stand out in their bluntness, if you can smell that. Some of the tunes rely on more accessible mechanisms like the pleasing singing on “Fen Shui” in which someone—it’s not quite clear who—certainly has a nice voice.

But the rhymes are the primary attraction on this project and, depending on who you ask, that’s how it should be.