Product Description

With his third fully produced album Copperpot is yet again tackling personal issues. His past projects have covered bankrupcy- Chapter 7 - mental health-Coppershot Issues. This time, WYLA? (What re You Looking At?) expounds on the fear and anxiety Copperpot experiences when faced with perilous situations such as DJing, riding elevators and making presentations to the class. Musically this record takes the Copperpot fan to a place they have never been before. With the enlistment of such musicians as Jeff Parker and Dan Bitney from the indie super-group Tortoise and Josh Abrams (Eastern Development, The Roots Organix ) this record does things musically that expand the boundries of hip hop. Essentially this record is just as good, but better.

Track Listing

1. Come Back Home w/ KRS One
2. Let it Go w/ Truth Enola
3. Demo w/ Braintax
4. I am a Banan a
5. I Put a What w/ Valeska Jakobowizcz
6. Art of Rap w/ Masta Ace & Edo.G
7. Dem Know w/ KRS One
8. Water the Manatee
9. WYLA? w/ Prince Po
10. Blow w/ Psalm One
11. Dem Know (Club M ix) w/ KRS One
12. Do You Really?
13. Modern Vampires w/ R o d n e y P
14. Clowning Arounding w/ The Time Bandits
15. Clowning Arounding (BONUS INST)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #408457 in Music
• Released on: 2007-08-07
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .18 pounds

Review
Since his last album, 2005 s Chapter Seven, Chicago hip-hop producer Copperpot has been holding down a residency at Rogers Park club Morseland. As skilled as he is at manipulating a crowd, though, we can t help feeling that catching him there is a disservice: Copperpot sounds best inside headphones, where his fidgety, low-lying beat science can truly envelop the ears. He does the sophomore trump, as opposed to the slump, on WYLA? (short for What re You Looking At?) with major help from an eclectic, peculiarly Chi-town rotation of guests. Post-rock and jazz musicians (drummers Dan Bitney and Frank Rosaly, bassist Josh Abrams, guitarist Jeff Parker) commingle with British MCs (Braintax, Rodney P) and conscious underground legends (KRS-One, Masta Ace and TOC fave Psalm One). The live musicians add ripples to each loop s tranquil surface and flesh out Copperpot s carnival aesthetic. WYLA?, incidentally, makes Diverse s fantastic Tortoise-studded 2003 album, One A.M., look more and more prescient. But the best tracks here come not from the unusually animated KRS but from more unexpected places. The British but not grimy MC Braintax, in particular, turns in a hilarious scolding to all the demo-tape authors who bombard him. And in keeping this a true producer s project, Copperpot serves soulful instrumental interludes, including I Am a Banana and the Amy Winehouse formula fueled I Put a What. Each strongly hints at the opportunities awaiting Copperpot if producing and deejaying hip-hop ever stop paying the bills. -Matthew Lurie --TimeOut Chicago

Review
Copperpot is an underground producer extraordinaire, the owner of EV Records, and a notoriously reclusive NYC DJ (now out of Chicago). Rather than move the crowd, he prefers to hunker down in the studio. And with his second album, WYLA (What're You Looking At), he's crafted an instant cult classic; it's a party album for rap heads laying in the cut on a Thursday afternoon, thumping and jazzy and purposeful and boom bappie. And though I would've liked to hear a few more local and/or label-mate mic controllers, can you really complain about tracks given over to NY legends Prince Po (of Organized Konfusion), Masta Ace, and KRS (thrice!)? 'Pot does what every producer must do to carry a whole LP, showing mastery of multiple styles and moods while maintaining an overall thematic cohesion. As good as the vocal turns are, the handful of musical interludes are welcome; 'Pot makes it clear that he's the creative star without overshadowing his equally able guests. So it doesn't much matter that Copperpot's so shy he breaks one of the basic tenets of the underground rock it live. Instead, he gives impassioned sermons from his dark lab. He speaks with his hands. His language is hip hop (okay, technically English, too). His dialect is post-modern and tru school. So quit Clowning Around, Come Back Home for the Art of Rap and forget Rick Ross we about to Blow. - Jordan Selbo --Minneapolis City Pages

Customer Reviews

3xdope
just on collaborations the thing is hot never heard of this dj from chi-town but will continue to seek his material based on WYLA nice dose hiphop whew! needed that.

Boring
Not as good as Chapter Seven, not even close. Forget this album and get Chapter Seven,if you already have Chapter Seven then you know what I'm talking about.