By Eric Fallows | July 16th, 2011
Peace Of Mind was a rapper from 2000-2006. It sounds like it could be a long lost artist career obituary, but this is not the case. It was in 2006 that he decided he’d tuck the rhymes away (even though he appeared on a well known Detroit radio station for his rap skills) and began tapping away on the Akai MPC, which enabled him to transition into a full-time producer in late 2007. After that, his story was history in the making.
I had never heard of this cat, Peace, until Street Justice dropped their album Go H.A.A.M, and then I immediately began to tune into some of his stellar production. Towards the end of this past winter, he released an album of his beats integrated seamlessly with Beatles music. It was on that record that he proved he could make psychedelic hip hop well.
Laces Out, as Peace explained to me, is definitely for listeners with well-to-do speakers. That goes for computer and the vehicle. It’s extremely apparent why when you listen to the opener “Intro,” which carries an extremely deep continuous bass line for the first 45 seconds of the song. From there, the track opens up with celebratory samples and a strong stuttering drum. It is a song like this that makes me wonder why more hard rock fans do not listen to hip hop. It must be because so much hip hop excludes the guitar; but not Peace’s music — he plays that, too.
Throughout the 35 songs, supporters of Peace can be heard tipping their hats and congratulating him on his thorough and cohesive collection of beats. The funniest one comes from DJ House Shoes at the end of song “Faraway,” where Shoes recounts a dream he encountered regarding the following song. Cue in ”Diamonds.” This song (which has one of the best introductions in a hip-hop song ever) that can mangle, strangle, and choke hold its listener. And then there’s the song “Love Was There,” which makes wonderful use of a Paul McCartney sample from the song “Dear Boy.”
With this release, Peace Of Mind proves that he is easily capable of producing different variations of hip-hop beats. He can handle psychedelic, soul, and even movie theme music (“It’s Over”). DJ Premier, Black Milk, Apollo Brown, and 14KT have trademarked their own drum styles; now you can add another name to that list.
Laces Out can be downloaded for free here