Psycho Craig was raised by folks who came through World War 2, The Depression and Segregation. They told him: “nobody owes you a damn thing!” The music of Psycho Craig is inspired by, Malcolm X, Michael Savage, Professor Thomas Sowell, Dr. Walter E. Williams, Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Public Enemy and Rush Limbaugh. Always controversial, topical and in your face. Let’s get the music out of the way first, because this is never the primary reason for listening to a Psycho Craig record, here the medium is not necessarily as important as the message. The spoken word artist weaves his way through a number of styles and genres, throughout his catalog, taking cues from a vast collection of influences, so musically, you never know what he will come up with next.
Over and above stylistics, the important factor for Psycho Craig though, is that the music does full justice to the lyrics and makes the track an engaging and vital listen, which is exactly what happens on “Springer, Lake & Jones” produced by Doug Cash. Driven by a marching drum, a resonant bassline and an atmospheric keyboard, the musical backdrop forms a solid foundation for Psycho Craig’s verbal analysis on the destructive mediocrity of media entertainment.
“Attitude over aptitude has been mainstreamed into entertainment,” states Psycho Craig, before dropping the query: “What you gonna do about the producers, distributors, participants and the viewers of Jerry Springer, Ricky Lake and Jenny Jones?” The foci of his verbal forays are thought provoking and, the way he expresses them, self-evident. He calls people to account in a society where this is not sufficiently done anymore, and this is surely welcome.
Whatever your stance may be on the status of media entertainment through the years, it is refreshing to have someone who cares enough to write a song about it, and is so damn eloquent in doing so. Psycho Craig bonds art with academia, the soul with the mind, and feeling with factual analysis. He reminds you of the potential power of music to promote change and induce inquiring minds, and that in itself can never be a bad thing.
Instead of accepting society’s status quo on a number of diverse matters, Psycho Craig is a musical communicator who ponders and wanders, as he effortlessly weaves webs of interconnected ideas that rattle the brain. He matches his words – spoken, sung, or shouted – with complementary soundscapes that are simultaneously futuristic and vintage.
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Essentials-Psycho-Craig/dp/B000HA3XFC
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