CALIX - THE LESSER OF YOUR GREATER FRIENDS ALBUM REVIEW
“The imaginative expression of art has always been a tool of the working class. The horrors of capitalism and its oppressive nature always have forced the working class, poor, and youth to seek ways to vent their rage and seek liberation.”
From the very beginning, I thought of Calix to be this breath of fresh air. A blow of adrenaline rather than it is a small dose of sedatives. I’ve had enough of swallowing the same content being fed and forced inside my gullible system. There are some things that I cannot ingest in local hip-hop; Gloc-9 wanking in the same verses and releasing half baked albums every year and mainstream rappers coming from FlipTop ( i. e. Loonie’s Ultrasound, Shehyee’ Self-Titled Album and Abra’s Self-Titled release ), that are in my opinion, some of the most disappointing and shallow hip-hop albums in a long time. They failed to capture something in their music. The essence of being yourself and recognizing your past is one thing that I find missing in most mainstream rappers today. Regardless of the common Filipino rapper, there were some hip-hop releases that already deserved the attention by its listeners. Those releases include BLKD of UPRISING, his debut album “Gatilyo” (released 2015) had us on our feet with a game-changing album, and following the next year, Collaborative duo Ejac and Buddahbeads of Mula ETIVAC cleansed our souls with their mixtape, “Balanse” (released 2016).
In the same year as Ejac and Buddahbead’s album was released, was this internet entity that spooked us for a year in this mysterious Soundcloud profile (which is the exact opposite of ‘soul-cleansing’, trust me). What the profile had at the time was a few stock photos on the track covers and it had 8 or more songs uploaded on it. Those tracks include tags and features from rappers that was new to me at the time. My ears were hungry in hearing the latest craze or maybe something that would ‘blow’ my mind at the time. Calix was one of those characters that drew something out of his music. He paints images that weren’t done in a while. At least in my perspective. For a long time, I wanted someone brave enough to create something this visceral, razor-edged, unapologetic piece of music. And my goodness, Calix went in with his first full length album titled “The Breakout Satirist” with the help of trusty producer ‘Serena DC’ and her haunting trap flavored production. The album isn’t as finely done and the album had some flaws that should’ve been undone. Those flaws include a few verses that should’ve been longer and it sometimes feels like the tracks were too rushed (ex: Sistema ng Kalawang, Azucarera, The Peon Hour).
Anyhow, those flaws doesn’t mean I changed the way how I see Breakout Satirist. It is still one of my favorite local releases of last year. Again, those technical flaws will never change the fact that Calix broke his anonymity in the public and gave us what we wanted as fans of his music and followers of his stand in the country’s current social climate. Spreading the word as much as he can unlike anyone in the hip-hop scene has done in a span of a year.
It’s 2017. August 18. A Friday night. The average 9-to-5 Filipino just went home coming from a tiring work schedule and heavy traffic. NOFACE RECORDS member and progressive rapper, Calix, just released his long awaited sophomore album titled, “The Lesser Of Your Greater Friends” around 9pm. Once the time came, all of us weren’t tired anymore. The 20-track beast of an album is packed with hip-hop’s youngest and established emcees that reaches from Rambling Man to BLKD to Illustrado to Sanggang Dikit to Space Impakto to GVNDVLXCXX$. From the promotion to the singles we have received in the past 7 months, the hype leading up to the album prompted so much excitement. It’s not just we wanted to hear more of the shock factor but we wanted our minds to be lifted out of the shit that’s being spun all over the country straightaway. We needed an album that could respond to the wrongs. And The Lesser of Your Greater Friends is the answer we’ve been looking for.
The album starts off with the introductory track titled, “Ahas”. Calix sends us a warning once you start the album this eerie.
The Intro tracks feel miles different if you look at it by comparing his two releases (both TBS and TLOYGF). Nonetheless, it’s dark, it sounded amazing, let’s head on to the second track, “Nalulunod sa Dugo”, rapping along is Mindanao-based emcee Dosage. The track fit in the first half in the album. The third track, “Parasitiko”, which was highlighted by Emar Industriya and his signature unorthodox rhyming. The album then shifted from being dark to being simmered down by slutgirl’s (tentatively named as ‘霏’) assisted hook in the fourth track, “Ramdam”, the minimalist style and slutgirl’s addition to this track made it sound a lot better than the single version. Did I hear a saxophone seeping in the background? The details in this track is amazing!
The eighth track, “Kawayan”, which features UPRISING’s very own Illustrado and a surprising (and almost unexpected) vocal guesting of art blog/twitter user, 8-Bitfiction. And I can say that this is one of my favorite tracks in the album. Everything about this track is equal parts chemistry and chaotic. Illustrado started weak but ended very strong. They really saved the best for last for Sayadd in this track.
Calix’s verses in the new album sounded a lot more cohesive and structured than his first release. His first release, “Breakout Satirist” is a lot more like “The Slim Shady LP“ because of the hollow edginess, average songwriting, and it had less punches. “The Lesser of Your Greater Friends” on the other hand, is like “The Marshall Mathers LP”. It was hard-hitting, harsh, and hostile. The album busts a move more than it’s boasting any movement in the rhymes and rhythms. Calix walked on boiling water. There’s no cold or warm spot here, it’s freaking boiling hot!
The tenth track, “Tulak”, was production perfection and Calix’s skill to speed up the tempo of his rapping blew my guts out. It ran for just 2-minutes but it felt like it took forever to see the character he is portraying suffering in the world of drugs and paraphernalia. Thirteenth track in the album, “Rich Kids Foreva”, is the funniest track in the entire album. Well, the bourgeoisie has its share of the limelight in the ‘indie’ music scene today and this track perfectly captures the disturbing, sly, privileged, upper class Filipino culture.
As I’ve progressed halfway in the album, the mixing and mastering in this project still sounded perfect and it never reached its peak. The fourteenth track, “Xerxes”, have the classic Serena DC production. So far, there isn’t a single track in this album that felt dragging. That’s when you know that staying consistent is way more favorable than being a showoff in instrumentals/production. Aspiring producers and beatmakers, take note!
The eighteenth track, "Ugat", featured not one, not two, but three of the youngest and up-and-coming emcees in hip-hop today (i find them to be overlooked by listeners, check out their soundcloud). Space Impakto, who in my opinion, stole the show with a verse that is packed full of bars.
The last two tracks, “Executive Order”, and, “Pinipilas”, are appropriate closers in the album. I cannot say that the last two tracks were the weakest out of the 20 tracks but it still has its purpose to close the album just so it can punctuate everything.
Overall, the album achieved in creating this wide musical scope and it reflected to be this record that we need to listen to from time to time. Calix has created one of the most daunting hip-hop albums to ever date, both thematically and conceptually. This album gave me legitimate chills while I was thinking how this project was made at the time where everything in the country was falling to pieces. I absolutely lost it and gave my anger an outcry in the sixth track, “Di’ Matitinag”, which was released around November of last year, during the heightening outrage of the Marcos burial. We needed a voice of this generation, the greater friend we have in the times of need was none other than Calix and all the other hopeful people desperate for change in the country.
The Lesser of Your Greater Friends is a solid album from top to bottom. It is an album that aimed for a legacy than it is to aim for a victory. I can definitely conclude that this release is much, much better than his previous one. Calix ultimately evolved from being a Binay hating, Burger Mcdo eating internet ghost to being an Anti-Marcos figure and this personification of wrath of the Filipino people.
The Lesser of Your Greater Friends is a hip-hop masterpiece and it will be remembered for what it is and for what it stands for. Even if it takes a million armed forces to take this album down, the freedom and the fight for true change that this album holds dear will never be taken away.
FAVORITE TRACKS: AHAS, PARASITIKO, RAMDAM, BINARY, DI MATITINAG, BRIGHT EYES, KAWAYAN, MASARAP, TULAK, KARA KRUS, RICH KIDS FOREVA, REMISSION, NASUSUKA, UGAT, EXECUTIVE ORDER
SUPPORT THE ART & THE ARTIST BY LISTENING TO THE ALBUM IN THE LINKS RIGHT HERE: