D-Sisive – Jonestown (Urbnet)
Prolific MC D-Sisive crafts his second shadowy record of 2009 with the brilliantly tortured Jonestown. Evoking the infamous mass suicide ordered by notorious figurehead Jim Jones, the record finds Derek Christoff conceptualizing Jonestown on lyrics rife with personal pain, humour, and cultural references. Grappling with his own alienation, Christoff utilizes grimy production (by the likes of Muneshine, Marco Polo, 9th Uno, and Slim Twig) to convey images of death intermingling with cheery artefacts from a childhood he’s both nostalgic for and haunted by. That innocence and bitterness shines through on “In the Jungle” and “One Way Ticket,” which are superficially bumping and intrinsically disturbing. On “1974,” he memorializes his late father, cleverly connecting Frank Sinatra‘s looming presence with Married with Children, and, after subtle references to hip-hop lore and films like The Shawshank Redemption, he just Wikipedias all sorts of shit on “They Got Guns.” With endless wit and a breadth of trivial knowledge, D-Sisive brings the pain with relish on Jonestown.