Search - Pete Miser :: Camouflage Is Relative

The beats alone are worth the money

Ed the Music Man | NYC, NY | 03/11/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is the best rap cd I've heard in a while. Sick, groovy beats with awesome, well thought out lyrics... unlike most of today's rap. If you don't fall in love with "Scent of a Robot", the video for it on petemiser.com will blow you away! If you like De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Gangstarr, or Talib Kweli you will definately dig this album

[...]

"Great rappers' résumés tend not to include things like coming from Portland, Oregon, or serving as tour DJ for acts like Dido, The Cure and Faithless. There's certainly nothing inherently wrong with either of those credentials (not with the first one, anyway), but they're not exactly essential qualifications for the average hip-hop superstar. Then again, as anyone who has listened to Camouflage Is Relative (or its predecessor, Radio Free Brooklyn) will attest, Pete Miser is far from typical.



This is because Miser doesn't fit into the typical hip-hop dichotomy: he's not a thug who shows off his hoes and his bling, and he's not a socially-aware tree-hugger who chastises the guys in the first group for being too focused on sex, drugs and violence. Miser exists in his own world; his lyrics range from the intensely personal (such as "Final", in which he details, in emo-like fashion, his one-sided romance with a girl who wronged him) to the brilliantly bizarre ("Scent of a Robot", about a robot programmed not to know he's a robot, who discovers the truth because of a wayward e-mail). With subject matter like that, obviously, the onus is on Miser to prove that he can not only come up with inventive ideas for songs, but to make them appealing to listeners accustomed to conventional hip-hop. On that count, he consistently delivers. Pick any song on Camouflage Is Relative: on "So Sensitive", for example, he smashes through the homophobia heard on most rap albums by proclaiming "My girl thinks I'm a fag and she's leaving with the kids / I said, 'I'm not gay but my boyfriend is'", then throws typical hip-hop posturing out the window with the chorus: "It's ain't easy being me / With all these insecurities / I'm such a sensitive MC / But Mama never told me I'd have days like these / I need a hug!". Similarly, on "Final", he admits, "Look, Bro, I know what you're thinking / 'What the hell? Pete done fell under the spell of some ghetto Jezebel' / And it's true, not very thuggish or rapper-like of me to get caught up with a girl who didn't really love me."



So far, we've only considered the songs on which Miser deals with typical hip-hop themes, even if he completely inverts or pointedly ignores them. His other songs are far beyond anything that Jay-Z or Chingy have ever even considered. "About Time" is literally a rap on the nature of time ("Current Physicists tell us time doesn't really exist, they must live in Manhattan / But it's a theory that I'd like to believe 'cause it means my career's already cracking / They make the point that time's a construct of man to help us navigate events that happen."). "The Fall of Williamsburg" mocks -- or praises, depending on how you look at it -- the denizens on the hipster borough. He attacks the current administration with the scathing "Old News" ("George Bush is a criminal, just like his father was / Abu Ghraib ain't nothing new -- what, you thought it was?"), then follows it up with a sound collage recorded at anti-war protests, called "Politics Schmolitics". And of course there's "Scent of a Robot", a song so incredibly catchy (and funny) that it's doubtful you'll hear a better hip-hop song this year.



None of this would matter if Miser's beats sucked, or if his mic skills didn't match his lyrics. Luckily, he's blessed in both areas. Miser's time DJing in groundbreaking (in terms of geography) Portland hip-hop collective Five Fingers of Funk clearly taught him how to make beats that are distinctive but not distracting, while his stints as touring DJ to the stars evidently gave him an ear for making those same beats catchy and memorable. As for his rapping, perhaps the best thing that can be said about Miser is that he's good enough to pull off his rhymes. Rather than trying to hit you over the head with his cleverness, or mumbling them indistinctly, he rattles them off with expert skill and poise, letting you enjoy them as fully as they deserve to be enjoyed.



That may not sound like much, but just consider how many songwriters get bogged down in trying to show off how smart they are. Miser, by contrast, is not only confident in his ability as a songwriter, but also in his ability as a rapper, and as such he apparently doesn't feel the need to do more than he has to. On Camouflage Is Relative, that tactic pays off handsomely.""

The Real Deal

D. Havlik | Queens, NY | 11/05/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I saw Pete on a bill with The Real Live Show at the Mercury Lounge last winter and was blown away by his performance. Who *was* this guy? Couldn't wait to get my hands on his new album and after hearing "Camouflage Is Relative" I am not disappointed. The guy's got talent, there's no doubt. Call him the anti-Eminem if you want ("So Sensitive"), he's got word skills up the wazoo while dropping beats that are hard and smooth at the same time. Hightlights on this album include the great ex-girlfriend song "Final" (yeah, you know I been there), "The Fall of Williamsburg," ("And the South Side be like who the f*ck are you?") and "It Rains in New York Too," which has some of the best lyrics I've heard on a rap song. Why this guy is not a bigger star I do not know. Catch him live if you can or just buy this damn record."