So you feel like shinin', and you feel like lettin' loose

It's Halloween! Well, it's technically past midnight but who's counting? I trust your costumes have frightened away daemons and ghouls come to steal you away to the shadow realm! But you might have been thinking, "what music is appropriately scary for such an occasion? Why, all of my music is twee pop and freak-folk! Surely Devendra Banhart can scare away demons, but he will also scare away all of my friends and make them not my friends anymore. Surely some demigods, some triumphs of men, have wrought with their glorious minds that which I seek!"

Oh, guess what, they have. FOR YOU PEOPLE I give a great album, an album filled with bloodcurlding tales of horror and the macabre. I give you an album of suicides, madmen, murder, constant elevation, and no fewer than two full cups of human blood. OH YES I SAID IT

That album, good folks, is the classic 6 Feet Deep by the Gravediggaz.

Gravediggaz was a supergroup featuring great rappers such as Too Poetic, Frukwan (of Stetsasonic) and the motherfucking RZA (if you need to be told what group RZA is a member of, you best get the fuck out and educate yourself). As if that weren't enough, the album is produced by none other than hip-hop superman Prince Paul, who you hipster douchebags might remember for producing your precious 3 Feet High and Rising.

Gravediggaz was one of the first horrorcore groups, "horrorcore" meaning it contained ridiculously unrealistic, cartoonish descriptions of violence. It's so over-the-top I'd almost venture to call it a comedy album, and it will likely make you laugh at least once. This is what separates Gravediggaz from shit like ICP. ICP is ridiculous and way too into itself and is terrible. Gravediggaz know how stupid and cartoonish their personas are and use that as a strong point.

Frukwan acts (aesthetically, at least) as the straight man of the record, with a fairly standard, smooth flow. Too Poetic recalls Ol' Dirty Bastard with his lilting, tremulous delivery and gives maybe the album's most memorable verse on the standout "1-800 Suicide"

"Hey ya little rich kid, what's your beef?
Come and tell the Grim Reaper all of your grief
You ask for a Benz and you only got a Jeep
Your pop's got ins, but yo, he's mad cheap
Maybe you're a bastard child, you think
Mom and Dad are white and you're dark as ink
Maybe you're Sicilian, with a tan
But you hate lasagna and the pizza man
Now you stand on the Gravedigga lot, and
you're singing the blues about the rough life you got (not)
You don't wanna live no more
I guess you're really ready for the graveyard tour
When you get home, just seal up your windows and your doors
put the oven on high for about 4 hours
Light up a blunt, kiss your ass goodbye,
you gassed yourself, cause, it's a suicide"

And the RZA is just the RZA. He raps the only way he knows how--in his raspy staccato that always seems like it's about to lose the beat, but it never does (not on this album, anyway).

It's an experience, to be sure, unlike any album out there. There's nothing out there so hilariously gory and macabre, and nothing better suited for a funky Halloween. Break it out next year and all the cool kids will think you're one bad motherfucker.

http://www.mediafire.com/?ymm2mnyxkeh