Album: Vodka & Ayhuasca
Artist: Gangrene (Alchemist & Ohno)
Released: Jan 24,2012
Say it with me now… Ay-ya-hua-sca (pronounced Ay-ya-wah-sca). Vodka & Ayhuasca. Know what I’m sayin’? Nah’mean? Nah? Not really? Ayahuasca is a hallucinogenic drink brewed from vines in the jungles of Brazil and used by indigenous cultures throughout South America. It has an effect similar to DMT.
Psychedelic right? Did you check the artwork out? Shit like this usually goes best with rock ‘n’ roll. Imagine Funkadelic’s Maggot Brain, infused with Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland and then crossbred in the west coast with a little Gravediggaz swag and the Big Lewbowski. If you are familiar with the Madvillain album, Gangrene is like their psychopathic murderous and drugged out little brother. Dust your blunts with anthrax and play this album loud.
Get familiar with it. Vodka & Ayahuasca is the new album from Gangrene. A group which consists of two “caveman club swingers and blood drinkers,” better known as Oh No & the Alchemist. Know what I’m sayin’? You should. Their previous album Gutter Water was one of the best releases of 2010. And if you aren’t familiar with the track records of either of these artists you need to dig in the crates.
Vodka & Ayahuasca features uncanny production with a turkish psych-rock, almost sp-404 like rick rubin grimy feel. Everyone knows Alchemist is infamous for his production work with Mobb Deep and Dilated Peoples, but surprisingly, Oh No composes the majority of the beats on the album. Don’t let that fool you tho, Oh No’s shit is banging and the Alchemist is spitting the best verses of his career on this raw ass LA shit. It’s hard to tell who’s better at what, but that’s not the point. When the Alchemist and Oh No come together for an album, expect straight jacket 5150 madness.
Stand out cuts include “Gladiator Shit” with Kool G Rap, and “Dump Truck” featuring Prodigy, but perhaps Oh No’s verse on the title track sums up the album best:
“This is a acid trip, rancid spit, psychedelic cancers with some packs of shit, vodka & ayahuasca to capture a glimpse of ecstasy, you would need a tiny pill in this bitch, that overdose, over the dosage prescribed from dottin’ over, the pot smoker, too high to be sober, i bleed smoke, my weed smoke is kief soaked, then rebroke and rerolled….”
you get the picture? but it’s much more than drug raps. Alchemist chimes in with “the one and only gang bacteria, so quarantine the immediate area and it only gets scarier, arial attack, mosquito malaria, there’s no sparring ya, you procrastinate, i’ll assassinate your character, palm a derringer, shoot to kill like Tom Berenger…”
This is definitely for the hardcore. I recommend you put this in your system with extra strength. Trip balls to it, start a mosh-pit, fail a drug test… whatever. Just make sure you turn it up loud.
-Bishop
Purchase: Gangrene – Vodka & Ayahuasca
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