Mixtape Of The Week: Kane Mayfield Rhymes By Kane: Thievery Corporation Edition
Stereogum · TBByTom Breihan · August 01, 2012Mixtape Of The Week: Kane Mayfield Rhymes By Kane: Thievery Corporation Edition
Kane Mayfield – Rhymes By Kane Thievery Corporation Edition I grew up in Baltimore, practically the duo’s back yard, but I never had a very difficult time ignoring Thievery Corporation, the bourgie downtempo electronic duo from DC. From what little attention I paid, they seemed to represent just about every aspect of dance music that I found the most boring: Expensive suits, sleek graphic design, rabid globalist cross-genre dabbling, antiseptic production sheen. When they played Lollapalooza a couple of years ago, I was wandering around the press area looking for free drinks while they were on one of the main stages, and I remember being completely annoyed the whole time: “What the fuck, areggae singernow?” And even though we’re from the same town, I’ve never even had to put any effort into ignoring Kane Mayfield, and I can’t imagine anyone else has either. Every town, I imagine, has at least a few guys like Kane — skilled rap technicians who cram in lots of syllables but never seem to bother much with songwriting. But on his new mixtape, Kane devotes the entire thing to rapping over repurposed Thievery Corporation instrumentals, and the end result isn’t just better than the sum of its parts; it’s completely fucking great by any standards. I don’t really have any explanation for that beyond this: Music is awesome, and anytime you’re certain of anything that you haven’t thought that much about, you’re probably wrong.