POS – Pissed Off Stef or Stefon Alexander. A Minneapolis native with musical roots planted in punk rock. After an initial hostility towards hip-hop, Stefon quickly graduated to rap as a musical expression and outlet. Now he is a member of the Rhymesayers family for life!
The gift of POS – Never Better, released February 2009, was bestowed upon me a couple weeks ago by a dear friend. And a week later I received the preceding album, Audition which came out January 2006. It’s clear in both albums that POS has an alternative approach to hip hop music. Sampling punk rock bands and drum & bass loops masterfully mixed into diverse beats with luscious lyrics laid on thick.
Audition serves as a wonderful stepping stone from the first album to the third. Lyrically Audition is on point, honest, and truthfully raw. Speaking to the little punk rocker and the wanna-be thug b-girl in me all at once. Each song laced with beats that serve as an homage to the hip-hop songs I grew up with from A Tribe Called Quest, Black Sheep, and De La Soul. The basic bouncy beat on the song “De La Souls” is driven by 3 deep cello notes reminiscent of early 90’s De La Soul songs. The 3 deep cello notes cut like a knife directly to the heart of the listener. “A Teddy Bear and a Tazer” serves as the birth place of this brilliant mixed big band sound that is almost James Bond like with POS speakin on freedom and independence. Jazzy beats moving slow like molasses and some gritty tribal rhythms on other songs carry through an extremely eclectic collection of stories on this album.
Never Better and the albums title could not ring more true for this artist. I experienced this album before listening to Audition and I about lost my little mind. Having grown up with a particular affection for drum & bass beats, the album Never Better spoke straight to my soul. The beats are not traditional at all and innovative in a way I’ve never heard or seen before. Illustrated particularly well in the song “Purexed” with the hook “try to find the beauty in your face, try to find the beauty in the baseline”. The song starts with a slow magical ambient sound that builds up to a light break beat and then bursts into a magnificent drum & bass explosion. The tone of POS’s voice in this song is radiant and strikes the perfect balance of chill evoking composition. A treasure trove is discovered in the album Never Better with succulent layers of gold buried in each song creating a compulsion to listen to every track over and over to find new sparkling bits and pieces within the whole.
POS is a true crossover artist, perfectly illustrated by both Audition and Never Better. There is a little something for everybody and I would be hard pressed to find someone that doesn’t at least enjoy if not fall in love with POS. I really can’t wait to hear more from this artist and see what direction he goes in next.
