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cunninlynguists - "oneirology" album review - screv6 lyrics

the cunninlynguists have always intrigued me – i’d always see their name on forums or hear it in discussions or whatever, and i’d tell myself, “i need to give them a listen,” but i never got around to it. another thing that interested me about the group was that they had their roots in my hometown, kentucky, which is something you don’t see very often. now, i’ve decided to finally invest my time in one of their albums, and “oneirology” was the album that was suggested to me
the cunninglynguists consist of three artists – deacon the villain, natti, and kno; with kno carrying the vast brunt of the production (all the songs are produced by him, with only one song co-produced by blue sky black death). “oneirology” is a pseudo-concept album: it’s loosely based around “the study of dreams,” as the album t-tle implies, but not really; it more so just draws inspiration from the study of dreams. i actually recently read the most famous piece of literature on the study of dreams, freud’s “the interpretation of dreams,” so my interest was definitely piqued by this album, even before listening to it
after one listen-through, my first impression was that it was easy to listen to, had great production, all three members flowed very well, and it sampled (relatively) modern music quite a bit. all these generalizations are exemplified through the first song on the album, “predormitum”. before we hear any rapping, we hear biggie’s famous, “it was all a dream” scratched over a beat driven by a hard drum rhythm supported by some synths. the first verse, delivered by natti, is six very hard, efficient bars, that are almost ruined by the last two bars (“i’m tripping like i’m eating the fungi/ leaving me cornered like the p-ss that crusts in one’s eye” – establishing another minor theme throughout the album of the occasional corny rhyme from natti). the rest of the song holds up much the same, with deacon and kno spitting solid rhymes, ending with the members trading bars seamlessly. the three rappers definitely seem to be on the same page as each other, using kno’s fantastic production strongly to their advantage
the second song largely follows the same mold, punctuated by a beautiful anna wise outro that melts through your earphones. the third track, “phantasmata” is effectively an interlude; a soft, snare/ guitar beat laced with sampled vocals, which segue-ways perfectly into the set of the my two favorite songs on the album – “hard as they come (act i)” ft. freddie gibbs and “murder (act ii)” featuring big k.r.i.t., both of which are conceptually driven songs
every verse in these two songs finds the rapper representing a different thing which corrupts and k!lls the world we live in; in “hard as they come,” these things are inanimate, while the living k!llers find themselves in “murder.” in the first of the pair, natti personifies alcohol, gibbs takes the role of cocaine, and kno becoming aids, the verses separated by a chilling chant of “gonna k!ll them….”; in “murder,” big k.r.i.t. -ssumes the role of a corrupt political leader and natti portrays the devil himself. the second track samples marianna faithfull’s confession in “guilt” that “if i could get away with murder, i’d take my gun and i’d commit it.” natti’s verse on the second particularly sticks with me, as the juxtaposition of religion and murder is striking; from the first lines of the verse (“i could use worship as a warship, bible and sword/ turn men and women to minions over heaven’s rewards”) it establishes itself as an accurate social commentary and a powerful verse. all five verses in these songs are perfectly crafted, and the production on them, while still holding to kno’s tried and true formula, is just different enough to make these songs stick out on the record
natti and deacon carry the momentum from those songs on through “my habit (i haven’t changed)”, a song describing their love of music, with language simultaneously suggesting drug addiction, featuring bars like “relapse itch hit, i’m scratching like dj’s/ tracks in my veins show i’m feenin’ for replays/ you say free b-ss? i’ll be right there/ i like mine with a nice cut and light snare.”
the next track rides against “ignorance,” with all three artists providing verses. natti again shows his susceptibility to ending his verses weakly, with the anti-climatic bar, “i’m about a thumb and a finger away from snapping.” other than that, though, the bars on this song range from playfully obscene – deacon gives us an image of a character m-st-rbating to halle berry – to markedly conscious, reflecting the oft contradictory nature of american society
“shattered dreams” has just one natti verse, followed by the instrumental stretching for about two and a half minutes; it’s not a stand out track, but still not bad by any means. the ninth track is an upbeat, “feel-good” track tied together by a smooth rick warren hook. an interlude moves the album along into its home stretch
the beat on “enemies with benefits” is upbeat with strong synths and a steady tambourine in the background, coming together as a very strong instrumental complemented well by kno’s auto-tuned hook. however, the two verses from natti and kno, are really weak (something about both of their deliveries on this one rub me the wrong way), both musing over a female; tonedeff’s verse is better, but can’t salvage the song for me, as this is one of my least favorites from the album
“looking back” is also about girls, and also features production that is a bit different from the rest of the album, although the beat doesn’t work as well for me as the previous one did; anna wise is on this hook, too, and she definitely delivers again, but deacon gives us one of his worst verses on the record and natti doesn’t do anything special either
the next track is simply t-tled, “dreams,” with triumphant h-rns and strong drum hits creating an inspirational feeling for the track. tunji delivers a spirited verse, and natti feels much more at home on a song like this than he has on most of the album, while deacon supplies a strong third verse too. i’m a huge bj the chicago kid fan, and he fits perfectly into this song
while “dreams” ended the string of forgettable songs, i can hardly bring myself to listen to the next one, “hypnopomp (epilogue).” bianca spriggs is delivering some ancient greek myth – which found its way onto the album, i’m sure, strictly because it’s relevant to dreams – but it’s so corny that i can hardly listen…. regardless, the sample on the final track, “embers,” fits perfectly on the layered, foggy beat. “embers” doesn’t end the album with a bang or anything, but it’s a solid conclusion
all in all, this is a very solid album, marked by consistently strong production from kno, solid verses, and strong messages. each member contributes to the group – deacon is clearly, to me, the best rapper; while natti wouldn’t be very far behind at all if he would cut down on the corniness; and kno is a decent rapper, but an obviously gifted producer. there are definitely highs and lows on the album – i absolutely love “hard as they come” and “murder,” while i don’t connect with “enemies with benefits” and can’t really stand “hypnopomp” – but the highs outweigh the lows (and the highs are largely distributed through the front half of the album), yielding an enjoyable result that is easy to listen to. not my favorite, but i am impressed and can definitely see myself listening to more cunninlynguists in the future

- screv6 lyrics

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