squatters quarters
*****
Adelaide Producer/MC Elapsed Time (aka Lachlan Scott Emes) has returned with this, his third EP, and it’s a triumph from start-to-finish; an action-packed one-man show that does it all with memorable rhymes, beats, and hooks.
This is textbook hip-hop, communicating its point of view with vivid storytelling, humour, and style. You can’t help but bob, laugh, and groove along to anthems like Bus Stop Love, which finds ET contrasting his MC lifestyle with his fellow bus riders, or Munchies, where he reminisces about the times and the snacks from back in the day with a half-time chorus that will be stuck in your head for the foreseeable future.
This EP runs the hip-hop gamut: opener Censorship is a no apologies, worked-hard-to-get this-far-style declaration of intent that demonstrates that ET can do contemporary hip-hop, but the beats after that feel comfortably old-school.
MDUSU-produced head-nodder Rescue Me injects some classic East Coast-style guitar funk while ET flows and incites the crowd to wave like they’re lost at sea and want to be rescued.
Lyrically, Squatters Quarters is frenetic, but the underlying themes that keep coming back are of hard work, fun, respect, and humility. When it’s time to get political on Fist to the Sky, it feels both foreshadowed and earned by the four tracks that preceded it.
Obligatory sex jam Don’t Tell Papa examines stripper life with empathy, turning it into a workplace story with a vocal hook from Lucky Rubb.
On One Take Wonder it’s time to flex skills, and it’s somehow intelligible at lightning speed, before the somber acoustic bonus track leaves you satisfied on a mellow note.
If you like hip-hop, check Elapsed Time out at elapsedtime.bigcartel.com or Triple J Unearthed; you won’t be disappointed.
Also printed in Bside Magazine 23 April 2015
