- Sydney based hip hop crew Brethren have finally released their debut album and the duo are taking on one of the hardest projects in hip hop - the concept album - culminating in Australia's first hip hop concept album. Usually based around a story and common theme, there have been some memorable concept album releases such as Kool Keith's perverted doctor on Doctor Octagon and Prince Paul's story of a drug running up and coming MC on Prince Among Theives. Beyond Underground sees MCs Wizdm and Mystery on a mission set in the post apocalyptic world to uncover the origin of strange noises and shock waves coming from an underground source.
Ex-Metabass MC Morganics delivers a News Report which paints a bleak portait of a new Australia (now called Terra Australis) straight out of a Mad Max movie before Agents 20 11 8 (Wizdm) and 973 (Mystery) introduce themselves to the story on their solo tracks - On A Mission and NME Lines respectively. Both MC's then jump into the Intercepta and take off to their destination with DJ Flagrant at the wheel ('s of steel). Intercepta is Brethren's tribute to the beefed up Mad Max police car Mel Gibson used in the movie and the Brethren boys got to take the car for a spin in their video.
Interestingly enough it also features a cameo by E. Minty, who played the feral kid in Mad Max 2.
After a long subterranean journey under the earth the boys stumble upon the X-isles an ancient underground tribe fronted by the likes of DJ Nick Toth, Blazin' DJ Nino Brown (who provide scratches and cuts for quite a few songs on the album), and Sereck from Celcius amongst others who assist the agents in their quest.
Other collaborations involve the likes of Diggz, Sleeping Monk and Hoodsta who play the roles of The Prophets on Profit or Prophet and Mass MC who plays the role of their nemesis on Enda The Dragon. I'd like to say more about the album but it is accompanied by a comic book drawn by Mystery himself, that revealing the story would ruin the hard work he's put into the project.
The album and project are inspired by sci fi films such as Mad Max, Journey To The Centre Of The Earth, L.O.T.R, Aliens and Predator; sci fi film makers like George Lucas and Spielberg; video games like Zelda - Ocarina Of Time and Metroid and not forgetting the hip hop inspirations of KRS-One, Rakim and Jeru The Damaja.
Since their last release, the Slingshot EP (check out their tribute to sneakers - Sneakafreak) back in 1997, Beyond Underground has been a long awaited release for the two as they are known to deliver inoffensive lyrical content with a true b-boy outlook in their rhyme styles (occasionally in Spanish as can be heard on Power Of Words). Beyond Underground is not only a wicked release - it is a piece of hip hop history.