There is a well-known adage that famously states, “Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be.” Wrong. Nostalgia is everything it has always been – it is a memory, an emotion, a time travel device, the start of a learning curve, a place to hide, and a yardstick by which we measure all aspects of our later life. Tech N9ne understands this all too well, and this latest album is the result of him recalling those simpler times at that titular address.
It is an album of memories from before his success as a rapper, before his 25-album run, and before he co-founded Strange Music. It’s a collection of stories from when he was simply Aaron Dontez Yates, living in a lime green house on 5816 Forest Avenue in KC.
Lyrics have always been paramount in hip-hop music and the styles it spawned, but the twenty-two songs found here are as much diary entries as they are creations for others to savor.
It all starts with “Birth,” a recollection of the earliest times, thoughts, worries, and complications set to a glitchy, trip-hop take on Beethoven‘s “Für Elise.” From here, Tech N9ne shares stories and anecdotes about his life and those of 5816 Forest Avenue.
“RDV” is a fast-paced, gang-affiliated tale that ups its game even more when the lyrics shift from deft and dexterous to machine-gun word salvos. “The Punishment” is about slipping free of the summer curfew of a strict household and not realizing that it was an act of love and protection by a loving father. “Sacrifice” blends fast, lyrical deliveries and more soulful segments courtesy of Jehry Robinson.
They say write about what you know, write from the heart, and write about what you remember. 5816 Forest is precisely that: not only a collection of skilled and infectious tunes but also the autobiography of Tech N9ne’s formative years.
Honest and from the heart, astute, and excellent!
Pre-save and purchase album HERE
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