PORTLAND HIP-HOP TWITTER (yes, it’s a thing) was ablaze last week as the online community rejoiced over the release of local rapper the Last Artful, Dodgr and producer Neill Von Tally’s highly anticipated new album, Bone Music.
Bone Music quickly caught the attention of Pitchfork contributor Mehan Jayasuriya, who did a lovely and thorough dissection of the album, giving it a pretty favorable 7.2 out of 10 review. “Bone Music takes its name, at least in part, from the Soviet-era practice of bootlegging banned records using X-ray film,” Jayasuriya writes. “It’s a timely reference to censorship, not to mention a fitting title for an album whose focus on the alienation of labor is near-Marxist.”
The record’s 11 melody-driven creations predominantly center on the perspective of the working class, and more specifically, the coal mining industry. Standout track “LLC” is an acronym for “lifelong condition,” and casts Dodgr as a veteran worker, with fellow Portland rapper Myke Bogan playing the boss of the operation. He definitely sounds like one: “Who da fuck is up to nothing/No good rambling, interruptin’, pissin’, pannin’, pushin’ buttons.”