Alltruisms: Clusterbombs

White rappers tend to fall into three camps these days: Eminem-ish, Beastie Boys-esque, or just plain embarrassing. While not remotely Beastly, Chicago’s Alltruisms makes it clear he’s more Eminem than embarrassment even before he ponders whether martial law is as effective as Marshall Mathers in “Nine-Digit Number.”

An altruistic dude who speaks in truisms galore, Alltru has jam packed Clusterbombs with booksmart, politically-aware rhymes and some fairly dope beats. Sometimes the subject matter leads to too much sharing (I now know way more than I’ll ever need to about his appreciation of Asian women), but for the most part the rhymes are right on target, like when he ponders if he picked up the mark of the beast when Ronald Reagan kissed him as a baby in 1980.

He’s also got a humourous side as well, as evidenced by “Jalopy,” an ode to his rusted out 1989 Toyota Celica, and “Hire Me,” a pisstake on the dreaded job interview.

When not rhyming, Alltruisms likes to drop out of Western society for extended solo backpacking treks doing supreme nice guy stuff like helping Thai tsunami victims rebuild their homes. He’s obviously the kind of guy who sees the world a little differently than most, which helps give him a uniqueness as he carves out a niche for himself in the hip hop underground.

Not a bad debut at all, but I’m curious to see just how deadly his clusterbombs will be in a few years once he’s had the opportunity to hone and refine his instrument a little more. Time will tell, I guess.

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