CLEAN GUNS: Sometimes There is Trouble

Clean Guns

Sometimes There is Trouble

© 2006 Beat Garden Entertainment (837101227575)

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(About MP3 downloads at CD Baby)

Music for thugs. Music for women. Music for nerds. Music for backpackers. Music for mixtape heads. CLEAN GUNS is hardcore hip hop for everyone.

tracks

1 Blast Off
2 Bad Medicine
3 Management f/ Johnny Darko and Arkive of Crooked Soul
4 These Words I Write
5 Knives on Trains
6 Good Clean Fun, Good Clean Guns
7 Beautiful You
8 Swollen Digits
9 Say Goodnight f/ So-S@y
10 Nobody's Hero
11 Ode to the Dead
12 Hold Your Glass High

notes

1985. Philadelphia, PA. Croskey St. A friendship was born.

2006. Philadelphia, PA. Clean Guns. "Sometimes There is Trouble."

It's been a long time coming...

CLEAN GUNS is comprised of Knowledge Don aka Nico the Beast, a thoughtful lyricist with a knack for intricate and layered rhymes in the vein of Big Pun and the GZA of Wu-Tang Clan, and Zilla Rocca, an MC/producer heavily influenced by the vivid story-telling skills of Nas and the eccentric slang and abstract musings of Ghostface Killah and Aesop Rock.

The music of "Sometimes There is Trouble" is produced by Zilla Rocca on 10 tracks, with assistance by his CROOKED SOUL
bandmates Starkey (on "Blast Off") Arkive (on "Nobody's Hero").

A hardcore hip hop album has rarely sounded this well-rounded: "Blast Off," "Bad Medicine," and "Swollen Digits" are hard-hitting bangers for Knowledge Don and Zilla Rocca to rip to shreds with sharp, aggressive rhymes.

Meanwhile, tracks such as "Good Clean Fun, Good Clean Guns" and lead single "Say Goodnight" featuring So-S@y are funk-oriented with groove and party based flows.

To cap it off, "Beautiful You," "Hold Your Glass High," and"Ode to the Dead" are emotionally honest pieces that sonically capture the love and appreciation of family and the heartbreak of death unexpected.

Clean Guns is a Philadelphia based hip hop group with a sound that is all their own.


BEAT GARDEN ENTERTAINMENT. Many styles. Many styles.

reviews

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  • Clean Guns: Don't be late for the dance!
    author: Rocky Fingers of King Bedrock

    Initially I was hating on these dudes. They put a little girl on the cover cleaning a gun. I wasn't having that! But after I heard "Say Goodnight" with Sosay, I gave these cats a chance and was hella impressed. Definitely some hip hop for every type of listener.

  • Future hip hop legends in the making
    author: Charlie

    Enter Clean Guns from South Philly, PA to remind me of why I fell in love with hip hop in the first place. Their new album, Sometimes There Is Trouble, is fresh and thrilling, rife with unexpected sounds and scintillating thoughts. The duo's members, lifelong friends Zilla Rocca and Nico the Beast, have clearly been deeply influenced by rap's greats, but they also add a lot of their own to the equation. Taking a little from Cannibal Ox and Company Flow (including their name from a "Simian D" lyric), mixing in a bit of Wu-Tang with some Heltah Skeltah, sprinkling on some Nas, Jay-Z, and Immortal Technique et al., they've distilled their influences' best elements and veered off from there. The album's opener, "Blast Off" is a terrific introduction to their sound, full of swagger and dynamic, nimble rapping. With its malevolent piano loop and menacing worldview, it's also the track that'd fit seamlessly on a Defintive Jux comp. After that, Clean Guns branch out further, seemingly intent on fulfilling their label Beat Garden's mission statement: "Many styles. Many styles." Over the course of twelve tracks, Zilla's production samples everything from Waking Life to Cesaria Evora, the Highlander soundtrack to a Polish classical string CD he checked out of the library. Their raps get cynical and raw, they get philosophical and funky, they get celebratory and sentimental. No matter what the mood they set or subject they broach, it works. There's not a weak song in the pack and not a moment of filler, a near-miracle by hip hop standards. At the moment, my favorites happen to be "These Words I Write" and the surprisingly affecting "Ode To The Dead," but all of it is straight-up quality. One of the most evident characteristics of Sometimes There Is Trouble is the immense love behind the project. Zilla and Nico got started around age fifteen, making "bullshit cassettes on a karaoke machine." They've been honing their skills ever since, paying their dues and soaking up the riches of hip hop culture. And yet, even with the seriousness pervading much of their album, you can tell how much fun they're having too, what a passion this is and what a culmination of hard work these songs represent. Somewhere in America right now, there's a fifteen-year-old who thinks all rap is stale and bloated and materialistic like I once did. He needs to hear this album right away, but then again so do you.

  • A great debut album from Clean Guns
    author: Fresh

    Sometimes There Is Trouble covers everything from club joints (Say Goodnight) to introspective tracks (Hold Your Glass High), and the group capably handles the varied subject matter. Great production, great MCing. Easily the best independent release of 2006, Sometimes There Is Trouble is well worth the eight bucks. What are you waiting for? Go buy it!

  • Two Thumbs Up!
    author: Danielle Lamana

    This is a hot ass cd...enough said!

  • Clean Guns restored my hope in independant philly hip hop. No joke.
    author: Adrian Taraba

    Sometimes there is trouble is an indie masterpiece. Lyrically inovative, musically bolder than pepper spray on your salad, all presented in the most professional packaging money can buy. This album goes from dark and serious, to bright and blistering. The single, "Say Goodnight" is one of the best songs I've heard come out of this area, and the crowd I saw giddily pull their hair out and slam-dance to it confirmed that. If you like hip hop, you like Clean Guns. Period.

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