Pitchfork

Tom Shimura is a nice guy. He's got an agile but easygoing rapping/singing voice, a murmuring rumble that he can switch from a deep raspy whisper to a piercing, high-pitched buzz on cue. He brags without being arrogant, his anger is short on rage and his sex rhymes are of the happily married, mild innuendo variety. There's not much glamor or danger in his lyrics or his persona; it seems more likely that a listener would want to hang out with him as a peer than live vicariously through him as an icon. I can't recall ever hearing about any beefs he might have had with anybody, and I can't imagine him getting involved in one any time in the future. He creates rap records Bill Cosby would find no problem with, records that your mom would probably like if she were young in the early 1980s, and it is almost impossible to feel like a hardass while listening to his music.

That last paragraph might have read like a condemnation, which is kind of sad in a way. Lyrics Born's brand of uplifting, inoffensive party rap is maybe the least cred-boosting form of hip-hop outside of nerdcore, the kind of stuff we worry that real heads from the street are laughing at us for listening to. But it's also likeably unpretentious, and the best parts of Everywhere at Once show Lyrics Born as a sort of lighthearted yet substantially energetic vocal presence at the center of a big, shameless funk record. After swapping sample-based production for a sound largely centered around the live band that's been backing him up during the many live gigs he's played since the release of 2003's Later That Day..., he's filled a pretty comfortable groove on this CD, front-loaded as it is with the sort of Rick James/Gap Band/Cameo turn-of-the-80s style that complements him well. Even when he's going full tilt at his modern SoleSides-cultivated West Coast backpacker smooth-and-assonant style, the band really brings out a halfway old-school vibe in his rhymes.

Despite a few underlying themes to some of the cuts-- "Don't Change" is the archetypal be-yourself anthem; "Differences" and "I'm A Phreak" and "I Like It, I Love It" cover the spats, sex, and love-struck excitement in relationships-- most of Everywhere at Once's first half is geared towards flat-out lyrical gymnastic party rocking. Early single "Hott 2 Deff" (featuring a sharp verse from Chali 2Na's familiar basso profundo) is probably the biggest potential crowd-pleaser, riding on a "Give it to Me Baby" bounce and stacking hooks upon hooks. But it's the way Born builds up and rolls out each syllable to play off that groove that really makes it; it's one thing to read a verse of his to try and diagram where all the gears in his flow start meshing ("Then I'm jetty like a Chevy on fresh Pirellis/ I'm talking veni, vidi, vici, baby, rest is history"), but to hear it in action like its own kind of instrument, whether rapping or singing, is where the power actually lies. There's plenty more moments like that, like the way the semi-conversational tone he affects in "Don't Change" subtly acts as a second bassline, or the rasp that harmonizes with the "Fopp"-esque guitar in "I Like It, I Love It", or one bit in "Differences" where he rattles off a string of words where every long "e" sound hits in time with the rhythm guitar. But as intricate as it all gets, none of it really sounds smothering or self-indulgent; if Lyrics Born has one defining strength it's his ability to get structurally and rhythmically adventurous in his flow while still remaining perfectly simple to follow linguistically.

The upbeat electro-funk mood eventually flags a little in the second half of the record, though part of that can be attributed to a couple of tracks that work on their own terms as more contemplative and personal moments. The downtempo ballad "Is it the Skin I'm In?" is subtly reminiscent of Curtis Mayfield, both in its plaintively-sung chorus and its reflections on racial self-consciousness. And "Whispers"-- about the passing of his friend Benjamin Davis, aka rapper and KPFA rap radio show host Mack B. Dog (cop his short-but-great "Hot Breath" off Solesides Greatest Bumps)-- is a stirring eulogy with a Houston-tinged g-funk intensity and a laid-bare grief. Less effective are a couple diversions that stray a bit too far out of Lyrics Born's admittedly broad stylistic range; "Top Shelf (Anything U Want)" is a stab at dancehall that rarely gets deeper than its endless, smushed-together chorus, and hearing Lyrics Born tackle a bizarre Devo knockoff on the political screed "Do U Buy It?" only proves that there are limits to his singing voice's versatility (Mark Mothersbaugh being well outside them). But with only two weak tracks and some deletable skits outweighed by a dozen good-to-great cuts, Everywhere at Once is one of the best albums to come from a Solesides alumnus in along time-- and if anyone wants to give you shit for liking it, just turn it up until Shimura's voice drowns 'em out.