Busta Rhymes & The Flipmode Squad –

Everything Remains Raw (Concert)

 

Picture: B-     Sound: B     Extras: C+     Concert: B

 

 

Hip Hop is in a sort of flux.  Still the dominant hit music genre of the moment, but it is becoming apparent that some of the key artists who are not retiring early so they do not get played out are allowing themselves to slowly play out.  There is always a game going on in hip Hop between the various rappers and who is on top, but Busta Rhymes has been hardcore and several steps ahead of anyone else in the genre.  Sure, Usher is hitting new commercial highs without selling out and Sean Combs is the most noticed new-generation mogul, but Rhymes is in a class and world of his own.

 

Besides making some of the most important Music Videos of the last ten years in or out of Hip Hop, he has been one of the most powerful and intense live performers around.  Only rivaled by Eminem’s amazing command of the syntax of the English language, Rhymes live sup to his name and the words can pour out like an old school machine Tommy Gun.  As far as old school R&B is concerned, no one in Rap is continuing its roots more effectively and consistently than he is.  That is why it was interesting to see a concert DVD by Rhymes arrive on DVD.  The result is Everything Remains Raw, an impressive and impressively long concert that shows that this is a man who is earning his money.  Joined by the various members of his long-running Flipmode Squad (turntablist DJ Scratchator, rapper Spliff Star and others who have been with Rhymes since the beginning), this is an act that is very tight from years and years of working together.  Star & Rhymes have particular chemistry and it quickly whips up the excitement in hardened crowds looking for the street credibility of the given Hip Hop act.  The Squad is a hardcore original that is non-stop intense and always full of spontaneous surprises.  Yes, they bring a level of showmanship like no one else in Hip Hop and are a force to be reckoned with.

 

What makes all this more impressive is how strong the presentation on DVD is.  The show form Phoenix, Arizona was shot on High Definition digital video and is presented here in an anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image.  The only think holding back the picture is the lower 480 lines of the DVD format and the necessary MPEG-2 compression and NTSC encoding.  The video is shot with stylish blues, with greens and even reds.  It is such a nice change form the dozens of Hip Hop DVDs we have seen done on the cheap and on the fly.  This truly does take Hip Hop live on DVD to the next level.

 

Even more amazing is the bass-rich sound.  Three soundtracks are made available, including Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo with Pro Logic surrounds, 5.1 Dolby and 5.1 DTS.  Thought he others are not bad, nothing can match the DTS here.  With the DTS (at 48 kHz, 24 Bits and 754 kilobits-per-second), it could be argued that this is some of the most powerful playback of any Hip Hop music available on the market.  Except for rare vinyl record pressings, the vast majority of Hip Hop is out on CD and hardly on the higher definition DVD-Audio or Super Audio CD formats.  DTS has also been shockingly underused for Hip Hop, a music genre more than any other that demands constant bass.  When boom boxes, stereo systems and car audio pushing the limits of those CDs to the pint where the bass is muddied, the DTS (especially here) offers less distortion and more power to the point where we can say it is the only direction audio for Hip Hop can logically go, and as usual, Busta Rhymes is ahead of the game.  It can even be argued that this is one of the best bass-rich sound mixes on the market, even including many feature films.

 

Extras include a portrait of the Flipmode Squad’s members, the stunning automobile collection in the squad’s name, their “Fortress” touring bus (all customized) and a good stills gallery.  Fans are in for a huge surprise when they get their hands on this DVD, but audiophiles should take this on at least once.  As for Busta Rhymes and The Flipmode Squad, lets hope the inevitable Music Video collection will have audio this impressive.  Beyond its TV 14 rating, Everything Remains Raw is totally uncompromised for DVD and Flipmode can only get better and better.  The DVD captures the live feel of the concert it recorded and that is rare indeed.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo