Mellow Yellow

Korean born, Queens bred Cool Calm Pete first put me at ease on the Babbletron album Mechanical Royalty. Along with Jay Manila and DJ Pre, they hot wired beats built like hoopty spaceships falling to pieces and rebuilt with junkyard parts. The sound was held together with string but half the fun of a jalopy is the fact that you can drive it into the ground without being afraid. Babbletron took full advantage, whipping through the galaxy without an ounce of fear driving their music like they stole it.

On his first solo album Lost, Pete pulls out of the space race but I wouldn't say he's got both feet planted on the ground either. This afternoon he's hanging in his hammock three feet above the Earth, swaying back and forth in the wind with his journal, some lemonade and a near faded outline of the last smoke ring he blew. He's been around the block before, but today he sees all he needs to from the comfort of his own backyard. Tomorrow he might have something to prove but for now he's just trying to live up to his name. The kind of inner comfort that you can only gain from seeing truth first hand has left him sure of the world and his place in it. No need to brag, no need to boast, just do what you came here to do and keep it movin. He sets the mood for this self-assured day dream with loose limbed soul samples from the 60's & 70's. Easy like Sunday morning, these are screen door beats. They keep the bugs out but let the breeze blow through. The track for download "Tune In" cools things down just like Pete intended. Instead of flexing to support his claim at manhood he lets the truth stand on its own and, as always, reality is strong enough to prop itself up. "Black Friday", the video below, is a song produced by RJ-D2 and was added as a bonus track to the album when it was reissued by the Def-Jux label. The track is more gamma-ray funk than the rest of the album but the interplay between the iconography and lyrics is whip smart.

Cool Calm Pete- "Tune In"

Cool Calm Pete- "Black Friday"