Five Deez: Pt. 1 - The Early Years

What Happens (Remix) - Five Deez
from the compilation Slow Children Playing (2002).
Time In Night - Five Deez
from the Sexual For Elizabeth 12" on Counterflow (2001).

Note: I was inspired to write a series of posts about Five Deez and their producer Fat Jon recently, so this will be a multi-part post. The Five Deez stuff will be here over the next week or so and so as not to clog up site from my fellow posters the Fat Jon posts will be over at www.criticalbeatdowns.com. Please use the comments to let me know if this works well or not.

Made up of producer Fat Jon The Ample Soul Physician (now that's a name) and rappers Pase Rock, Kyle David, and Sonic, Five Deez has been putting out innovative hip hop since the mid-90s. Originally teaming up in Cincinnati, OH, they've managed to put out a lot of great material in a remarkably varied set of styles. Like most people I first heard of the Deez from their top notch debut album Koolmotor, which came out on Counterflow in 2001. A brilliant collection of "more dusty than digital" hip hop beats with some innovative rapping by the various members, Koolmotor is an undeniable classic and probably familiar to most of you already.

After the succes of Koolmotor a compilation of earlier Five Deez work was put out called Slow Children Playing. The first track up today "What Happens (Remix)" is from that compilation. This track has the traditional chorus-hook structure and a simple but crunchy boom bap beat. Fat Jon lays some very pretty piano over the beats, which is something he is fantastic at. The vocals are pushed up front in the mix, which is also common in hip hop, but all of these traditional elements stop being restrictive to Five Deez even by their debut. So while this track is very good, it only barely hints at the inventiveness that is to come from the group. One hint of their willingness to play loose with a lot of the traditional restrictions is the slight imbalance in the stereo mix of the vocals which creates a nice side to side effect and extra oomph.

The next track "Time Is Night" is a Fat Jon instrumental from the B-side of their second single from Koolmotor "Sexual For Elizabeth." Popping drums along with a lush and airy soundscape form a backdrop for a very emotional female vocal sample. Fat Jon's feel for creating an instrumental that stands alone instead of begging for a rapper over it cannot be missed. The A-side "Sexual for Elizabeth" already shows how left-field the group is willing to be giving shine to Japan/Bay Area rapper Shing02 to kick a verse in Japanese after nearly three minutes of the track has gone by without rapping, just the beat and some looped singing.

An added benefit with these early Five Deez releases on Counterflow is that, like most of the other records coming from that label, they have ridiculously great cover art.