by Dan-O

If you watch comedy documentaries(and listen to comedy podcasts) like I do you know this special species of performer. Some nights they connect with the audience other times they don’t but it doesn’t matter. It’s Gilbert Gottfried doing a Seinfeld impression in the 70’s when no one in the audience knows why that is funny and Seinfeld is sitting by the bar saying “I don’t sound like that.” It’s Larry David leaving the stage whenever the vibe doesn’t feel right. These are comedians favorite comedians. The other performers line up excitedly to watch the form and the crowd get challenged again.

That is how 2020 has been for Iceberg Theory. The artwork, the themes are completely unique. Not only are they spiritually focused (which is its own risk in the public marketplace) but the songs are packed with historical references and pulled into where we are now, compared contrasted analyzed. As he says on Oonos Ta’oolan (First Sword) off his newest album Dispatches From The Kali Yuga “The atom divides, it’s a fathomless dive.” Well, right after that he does say “This some sh_t you might have to rewind, you might have to hit the books to reference half of the lines.”

His mind is dizzying and he’s good at rapping so on the surface that is fun to hear. Also, August Fanon is on one of the most important production runs in rap music. He’s really found a partner in Iceberg, who always brings in the most interesting voices in the underground to feature on the projects. On the latest he’s got Fatboi Sharif, Saga Asad, Lamon Manuel, Prynce P, Sleep Sinatra, Lync Lone, Pro Zay, Tokyo Cigar, Defcee, Lamb Rabbit, Pranom, AJ Suede, Skech185, Alaska, Bloodmoney Perez, and D. Lanham.

I’m watching Iceberg do his rappers favorite rapper thing. This song is what I’m watching for. I love that he sinks in so deeply the more soulful or atmospheric the track is. I love his experimentation with singing as it always comes out of nowhere in a pleasant way. Scapulimancy is his best singing to date. At two minutes and thirty four seconds the beat switches, after an interlude about infinity and the big bang, his first words after the switch are “Nothing was wherein radiance was not.” We all like unpacking him and on first listen, I remember thinking Dispatches is an especially angry album.  It’s because of the radiance in this world that we squander. In Iceberg’s words the “many level teachings made literal” once you get what he’s saying your much more connected to the love that drives it. No one knows it better than Fanon. In my comedian’s favorite comedian analogy Fanon doesn’t watch from the back, he’s not an awestruck waiter like me either, he’s the game changing comedians brother smiling from the crowd thinking “they don’t know what they are in for.”

Stream then buy Dispatches From The Kali Yuga below:

https://icetheoryrap.bandcamp.com/album/dispatches-from-the-kali-yuga