Great Sounds Great; Bad Sounds Bad: PNC “Murderer”

Every week, writers for The Corner will focus on a bunch of recently released local singles and grade them. We call it Great Sounds Great; Bad Sounds Bad. We might have borrowed this idea from thesinglesjukebox.com but we love that site and we hope that you like this.

[Video / mp3]

[Grade: 6.3]

Duncan Greive: PNC’s Bazooka Kid was one of my favourite albums of 2009, a totally flawless rap record made so largely through having a very focused and inspired production aesthetic. So I was a little disappointed to see that he’d left it behind on ‘Let Your Lover Know’, with the Checks. Like, I love that he’s still challenging conceptions of what hip hop can sound like – it just wasn’t as effortless as the best of BK. This is much better though, a throwback piano and drums beat with Barrington Levy’s mournful tones heavy on its bones. His lyrics are always incredible, and ‘Murderer’ is no different – funny, swaggering and belligerent. [7]

Stevie Kaye: A radical de-chilling-out of Fat Freddy’s ‘Ernie’, Fire & Ice injects some 80′s dancehall dread into NZ hip-hop – PNC’s off-the-cuff flow is still priceless (“I kilt it like Scotsman”, “flow’s fucking nuts / noodles / pad thai”!), though fingers crossed he doesn’t end up mired in the same sort of battle-rhyme dead-end as post-Savage Thoughts Kapisi. [8]

Michael McAuley: Fire and Ice kinda killed this. Love how the very start sounds like the start of ‘S.A.N.T.A.N.A’. I’ve been a fan of PNC since the Breakin Wreckwordz days and to my mind he hasn’t put a foot wrong for a loooong time. Dude sounds just as home on this grimy reggae tip as he does on P-Money’s funky new shit. I wasn’t really a fan of ‘Let Your Lover Know’, if only for the awful fucking chorus vocals from The Checks dude, but this bodes seriously well for the new album. Between this and the new David Dallas (which is apparently largely produced by these guys too), 2011 is looking good. [8]

Dan Taipua: Can PNC stretch a single metaphor across a whole song? Can anyone? This a fine showcase from a seasoned player, truly great in parts, but lacking attention in some areas. The Fire & Ice beat might be a bit too literal – there’s no interplay between the rhymes and beats, it’s murder raps with straight murder music. Even though the lines stay sharp throughout the track, they don’t really lead anywhere. It needs something to break up the narrative – a dedicated verse murdering the rhythm with an off-beat flow, or describing how weaker MC’s murder the artform, just one stand-out point to hold the whole thing together. To use a basketball metaphor (poorly): PNC breaks mad ankles, but doesn’t make it in the paint. [7]

Chelsea Nikkel: I dont like this song.  Now that we all have Pro Tools 9 in our bedrooms, you can’t get away with shitty production – especially on a hip hop track.  PNC sounds like an opiate infused Eminem. This is breaking no new ground that DLT & Che Fu’s ‘Chains’ didn’t already 15 years ago. [2]

Matthew Hutching: Despite finding the rap relatively pedestrian, the Fat Freddy’s Drop sample works nicely, and I love that he mentions Pad Thai. [6]

Kim Gruschow: I love a big man talking about food. Palmy folk are good folk and I’m sold on hang time with PNC and a Pad Thai. A lil’ more moss on the beardy bits, a lil’ more punch and raw and he’ll be up there as local contender beside my number one crush groove Ricky Ross. I’m right here in funkytown and my gag-reflex tends to get Jah wobblin’ at the words ‘Fat Freddy’ but kick out the jammin’ horns, chuck up a hard rap and holler that refrain. I’m not just settled, I’m feeling it. A little more intensity and variety of sounds might elevate this, but it’s well solid. [7]

James Beavis: The Fat Freddys Drop sample feels like a great idea for single bait in theory, but yikes this execution is so poor. Given that it’s a relatively aggressive track, was thinking that parts of the ‘Ernie’ sample (esp. the drop with the horns) would be way more hard-hitting than they actually are. PNC comes off like he’s trying to let the beat do the work and ultimately, this is the aural equivalent of a glove slap when you’re expecting Tyson. [4]

Hussein Moses: There was this moment before Mos Def broke everyone’s hearts at his Auckland show last week where DJ Sir-Vere dropped this song right before he played ‘Bad Bad Whiskey’. It was perfect hearing it out of context – not through these shitty speakers on my macbook when I’ve watched the video, not through earphones when I’ve listened to it on the bus, but being able to feel the bass rattle my ribcage. Rap beats mixed with piano have always worked extremely well when done right – Jay-Z’s ‘Allure’, ‘Kanye’s ‘Homecoming’, ODB’s ‘Shimmy Shimmy Ya’, ‘Rick Ross’ ‘Yacht Club’, Kweli’s ‘Get By’, pretty much anything that Dr. Dre has had a hand in et.al. Fire & Ice are right up there for me too, and this is a perfect pairing. [8]

Phyllis Gabor: PNC’s songs always seem to just miss the mark for me, and this one isn’t an exception. It kinda bugs me cause I really wanna like PNC but it just seems like his lyrics are more about rhyme and hip hop bravado than realness, which is something I can’t get a feel for. Keeping to his game, he spits pretty good on this track and the production from Fire & Ice is always impressive and still sounds pretty fresh even though they sampled a Fat Freddy’s Drop song. They also directed the vid, which is nice ‘n’ simple and well suited. All up pretty good job, but still not satisfying. [6]

Luke Warm: Macho, macho stuff here and although it’s clearly derivative, it’s not a bad track. I have to say I think it’s lacking in a strong hook and I hate that vocal sample. But the beat is heavy and grimy with a hypnotic momentum that feels like granite rolling at you. PNC’s clearly a talented MC with alot of potential – his rhymes are sharp and they’re delivered with a slick, deadpan, matter of fact tone that gives them even more strength. [6]