Album Review: DOOMED! By Open Mike Eagle And Kenny Segal
Album artwork for DOOMED! by Open Mike Eagle and Kenny Segal
The term Art Rap was coined by Open Mike Eagle to describe his style of music, to not shy away from new ideas and to make tracks that are unique and unlike the traditional genre of rap and to treat your work like it is art. The Album “DOOMED!” explores Open Mike Eagle’s romantic relationships and how they will always end in every known universe whilst trying to save it in some tracks and coming to terms in others.
We open this record with Out To Lunch which is a perfect example to introduce someone to the genre of Art Rap, no compromise as Mikewants to make sure his point is heard and understood. With instrumentals calling back to the early 2000s and the flow and lyricism pulling influence from groups like A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul. The majority of the track is Mike repeating “Don’t make your day if you can’t make mine” which starts the story and theme that you see across the rest of this record with the sub title of the album being “Rap Songs About A Relationship That Ends In Every Possible Universe.”
The title track DOOMED! really explores this concept and the reality of how when one relationship ends you lose so many people in your life as they were connected to your partner. With the backing track being a simple beat and trumpet holding it together, this is a rant from Open Mike Eagle disregarding the structure of the track and reading a list of everything that has been lost and how he is trying to cope with the reality. Once you reach the end of the song he seems to spiral and repeat how this break up affected him even in the smallest ways, like having to go to the cinema by himself, showing the loneliness of the situation. This track is a beautiful and unforgiving look into the mind of the artist.
You then find yourself moving into a smooth talking, jazz style instrumental that explores the arguments that Open Mike Eagle had with this partner. She Swear I’m Colorblind is a perfect mix of Open Mike Eagle’s voice and Kenny Segal’s production which makes for an easy to listen to track, but if you listen to the lyrics you realise how heavy the song is for the artists. You can often hear that Mike is constantly repeating phrases every track like these thoughts are stuck in his head, “Pay attention when I talk.” is the sentence used in this song which comes after he describes the argument with his partner. With a feature from Billy Woods, who has collaborated with Kennyon multiple records, he brings in a more traditional rap portion where the jazz is stripped back whilst he speaks on being together physically whilst being apart mentally.
“Mr Stark, I don’t feel so good,” is a line most people should know, when Spiderman fades away in the arms of Iron Man, Infinity War Spoilers uses what was said in the film as an analogy for the way he feels in this relationship, also using the line “I don’t want to go.” This track is placed after the relationship has ended and the track is messy (complimentary) to encapsulate the feelings he’s going through. The backing track slowly becomes more and more senseless whilst Open Mike Eagle rattles off everything that he has let go off until the track distorts and quickly ends. Mike and Kennyuse these tracks well to convey every emotion possible that you don’t see most artist in this genre do.
Transitioning off the last song we enter Watching A Movie Called Freedom By Myself, which starts with eerie ambient sounds for a beat, combined with the constant lyrics of “We can all just leave,” which makes for a really unsettling first half of the track. In the second half the lyrics quickly get distorted and words are missed until all that is left is a beat that skips and makes subtle static sounds for another 2 minutes, leaving the album ending in uncertainty and confusion as to if the character has made it through.
Derived from a true story of Open Mike Eagle splitting from his wife, you can see the pain and sadness he has gone through which has been poured into this record. Each track makes sure a story is being told both lyrically and musically. Whilst a small amount of the tracks on this record are not of perfect quality, the ones that have been listed off in this review are near masterpieces in their respective genres.
FFO: A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul
SCORE: 8/10
DOOMED! is out now on all streaming platforms via Backwoodz Studios.
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