Sean One

For his latest album, rapper/producer Sean One has put together a few beats for himself and his friends to rap over. Sean’s smooth boom-bap beats have an almost familiar old school vibe that is altered by a quirky production sensibility. While it results in a collection of good songs, they do start to blend together over the album’s 19 tracks. Still, Full of It serves as a great introduction to the Dead Beats family, with Jorun and Bonshah dropping by for one song each, and Mickey D., Monark and Above each contributing a few. Sean One also invites along fellow Maritimers and occasional contributors the Fax 4, Ghettosocks and Jorun’s frequent partner, Flexxman, plus East Coast migrants Josh Martinez and Cee!!!!!!!!, as well as the rest of the Dirty Crew. Anyone that has heard Cee!!!!!!!! will already know that his no-holds-barred nasal rap/croon stands out from the pack, which is once again true for the space jazz of "Tittie Balls,” appropriately ending with turntable freakiness courtesy of his Drunken Arseholes partner, DJ Moves. Ghettosocks also stands out on the dark "Clarice Was a Freak,” as does Jorun’s usual abstract bragging on posse cut "You Ain’t Ready.” Oh yeah, and it’s also worth noting that the much-maligned Pimp Tea shows great improvement as Brockway Biggs on bonus track "Invisible.” Hopefully that doesn’t end up also being an apt description for the Fredericton hip-hop scene spearheaded by Sean One and his Dead Beats label. (Dead Beats)