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• NulSiDécouvert - Yé où le h … Sun, 03 Aug 2008 01:13:59
  
  

  When a hip-hop group manages to work in a funny double entendre into their name, I’m intrigued. It shows a sense of humour so often lost in an industry that seems to spend more time worrying about image than sound. But Montreal, Québec hip-hop group NulSiDécouvert are one of the rare groups that nail both the sound and the lyrics. Their name, which is both the expression used on Québec lotto tickets (”void if scratched”) and also means, well, “lame if naked.” Even the title of their 2006 album, Yé où le hip-hop ? strikes out at what the group sees as the end of hip-hop: In French, the title is writtne very idomaticlaly to ask: “where is the hip-hop?”

  And as the start of their song “Hardcore,” shouts: “NulSiDécouvert, that’s where it’s at, bitch!” I think that pretty much answers it.
  

  Sounding frequently more old school than new school, the album cleverly mixes a huge variety of instrumentation for the beats. Listen to the opening track, “Licence complète,” and I dare you not to be reminded of high tops, early BET, and Run-D.M.C.

  But if the album falls down. it is because  it tries to do too much. Some songs just sound out of place on the album, “Fils de Bach,” which is a very funny track delivered at maximum velocity, but it sounds very poppy. “Numerik” sounds like Nas, a sound best left to him and him alone. Which is not to say that these tracks aren’t good: they just belong on a different album. Not this one.