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SINGS THE BLUES!
(Basement)
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With more puzzling, cerebral, and personal raps than others in the positive-hip-hop scene, Pigeon John is a fedora-sporting weirdo whose rhymes sound like an unedited script from his subconscious. Arising from LA’s Good Life Café scene, which also spawned the Pharcyde, Freestyle Fellowship, and the Black Eyed Peas, he recently signed with the San Francisco label Quannum, where he’ll join Lyrics Born, DJ Shadow, and Blackalicious. On his latest, he remains entrenched in the underground. Despite the sweet hooks and the engagingly sung choruses, the subject matter (his girlfriend cooking him oatmeal; Pigeon feeling insecure; Pigeon’s existential worthlessness) is hardly the typical hip-hop bluster. Songs amble along at a lazy pace, and his soft, nasal voice benefits both his raps and his cool, relaxed singing style. On "Perfect Formality," he raps, "All I want to do is be Radiohead and do something ingenious." In fact, his melodious sound is closer to Radiohead than to say, 50 Cent, who’s in a whole different stratosphere. Some hip-hop heads won’t get Pigeon John, who dispenses highbrow hip-hop for the awkward, geeky, please-don’t-touch-me set. But those are his peeps. (Pigeon John opens for Living Legends and Jedi Mind Tricks this Wednesday, April 6, downstairs at the Middle East, 480 Massachusetts Avenue in Central Square; call 617-864-EAST.)
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