EP REVIEW: HEY ASSHOLE! – Nascar Aloe
NASCAR ALOE combines rap and punk on his new EP, HEY ASSHOLE!, the eagerly anticipated follow-up to his debut full-length American Wasteland which was released last year. The Cambodian-American rapper is originally from Lexington, North Carolina, and was raised on his father’s R&B and jazz records. After finding hardcore and punk in high school, he combined the two to create his own unique style.
Don’t let the short runtime of the EP fool you; there is a lot packed into these songs. First up is the title track, which has a catchy beat and is a mid-tempo song. There isn’t much to the vocal delivery, as it is mostly sung. However, it is simply a fun opening song that lures you in gently, with the only hint of what’s to come being some guitar riffs thrown into the mix.
GAMERBOY is where things get interesting as Aloe unleashes a spew of anger over a video game beat, although sometimes the production means that the beat is louder than the vocals, making it hard to hear what he says. Also, the beat doesn’t change throughout the song, which can get slightly irritating to listen to, but fortunately the song is short and interesting enough to let those issues only be small nitpicks.
DISGRACE unfortunately goes into the opposite direction, and – over a slightly lacklustre beat – Aloe raps about how everyone is a disgrace. Whilst he tries something new in the middle of the song with an electronic breakdown, the distorted vocals may sound a bit grating to some ears. DRAG RACE continues the distorted sound, but instead this time it is on the beat. Whilst this is perhaps the first song on the EP to lean more into a hardcore sound with some screams thrown in, the fuzzy beat and the overlapping vocals plague the track.
It is a shame that the production lets the EP down, because NASCORE ALOE is clearly extremely talented. He is a brilliant rapper, and the parts of hardcore that he throws in work really well. It is just that the EP either makes the beat a priority, making the vocals hard to hear, or vice versa. Furthermore, sometimes the short length of the tracks hurt the EP too, especially on DONT 4GET DA NAME. With a runtime of just one minute and 20 seconds, the beat of the song builds up to something interesting, and then just ends abruptly, leaving it feeling anti-climactic. OGRE tries something different with auto-tuned speech spliced in, almost as if a conversation is going on in the song. It is a unique take, but the runtime yet again lets it down, as it is extremely short.
In addition, the overall pacing of the EP is a little scattered, with one song being more fast-paced and then slowing right down halfway through. This creates an uneven listening experience. However, the talent is there, and there is some interesting experimentation that just makes us wish that was the focus instead, as what ideas are lurking in the songs sound like they could work really well if they were used in a full song. For example, the conversation in the aforementioned OGRE ends abruptly, which is a shame because it made the song sound quite interesting.
Overall, HEY ASSHOLE! is an interesting, if frustrating EP that boasts a talented star in the making, but is let down by the production. NASCAR ALOE is a brilliant rapper, and when he is allowed to flex his talent, he really shines. Unfortunately, he is often overshadowed by very peculiar production that seems to favour the backing beat over his talent. Furthermore, the pacing is uneven, which doesn’t help the fact that the songs are so short that they don’t really get a chance to shine on their own. However, there are some signs of hope, such as the experimentation on the final song, that – if given space to breathe – could have created a unique listening experience. Unfortunately, that is not the case this time.
Rating: 5/10
HEY ASSHOLE! is set for release on May 26th via Epitaph Records.
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