Chris DeLine

While being far from confrontational, the tone of New York MC Chaz Kangas’ new album A Personal Reference has the potential to be very divisive. He’s funny without being snarky and remains true to his voice and interests without satirizing, but in sounding musically similar to Atom and His Package at times, something tells me that you’re either going to love him or hate him. “Young, Gifted and Chaz,” for example, samples the theme to The Critic with Kangas consistently playing to inside jokes and odd pop culture references, “There is one reason that I rap truly, it’s just so I can get Nardwuar to interview me.” If that doesn’t entice you, perhaps rhymes about late night Arbys runs, Mighty Ducks overdubs, tracks sampling everyone from Enya to the Breeders and collaborations with the likes of Mac Lethal and Homeboy Sandman might do the trick. If you’re still on the fence you might be interested in sampling his 2008 record with Childish Gambino (“My Hoodie“) or footage from the Minneapolis native’s winning performance at the 2007 Twin Cities Celebration of Hip-Hop Battle. But if for some reason none of that happens to appeal to you, hopefully you’ll still be able to give Kangas some dap simply for losing his ponytail… No ponytails in 2011: something we can all get behind. A Personal Reference is available as a free download via Kangas’ Bandcamp page.

[This post was first published by Culture Bully.]