K-OS — Yes!

Yes!

Universal

Sarah Kurchak (CHARTattack)

04/20/2009 3:49pm

On opening track, "Zambony," K-OS declares "I am not indie rock, I am West Indie hip-hop with many styles." Even with the "many styles" caveat, it's an oddly limiting claim for the MC to make.

Yes! definitely isn't an indie album, but it isn't exactly a hip-hop album, either. Nor is it a glossy pop record. There are moments on the album that could be easily fit into one of these genres, but as a whole, it's a much harder work to pin down.

It's a pretty glorious mix of a bevy of influences — one where anyone with a musical palate more sophisticated than pure top 40 is likely to find at least something that appeals to them on the disc — and "many styles" only scratches the surface of the kind of music K-OS is making.

It's not a perfect genre-hop, though. "Whip C.R.E.A.M." and "The Avenue" meander too much and drag down the energy level of the disc, but despite those blips Yes! is good enough to make you wonder why K-OS is so concerned with defining himself at all. Why is he spending so much time and effort, both in an out of his music, railing against critics for classifying him as anything but hip-hop?

With such varied influences and such a unique sound, he should really stop caring about such definitions entirely and open his next album with a rhyme along the lines of "fuck it, I'm a genius" and not worry whether any of us critics appear to agree or not.

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