Spectreview: Vitamin D – Mama’s Basement

-LIGHT CORAL-

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Derrick Brown (aka Vitamin D, aka TallHomey) has been contributing to the Seattle hip-hop underground for thirty years now, an insane amount of time considering how the scene has stayed under the national radar for almost the entirety of its existence. In spite of his infinitely marketable gifts as a producer (and the formidable clientele he’s amassed over his long career), Brown chooses to keep his hometown close in many ways, and that’s kept him a legend within the local sphere, long providing the glue for a fervent, tight-knit underground community. Brown’s output has accelerated considerably over the last decade, giving him more opportunities to cement his claims as the progenitor of the “Seattle sound;” what that sound might entail is arguable, but if we’re going on his most recent works, it feels incredibly warm and soulful, the kind of homegrown production built from deep jazz cuts that fits right at home in the PNW’s obsession with honest, do-it-yourself gumption. This is exemplified in Brown’s latest LP, Mama’s Basement, as he rejects industry standards and commits to the production practices of his early career, like recording without a click or splicing samples manually. The effect is intoxicating: Vitamin D records have always felt a little like a timewarp, but the pre-gentrified streets of the Central District make a fitting backdrop for D’s signature sound, and despite its runtime the record’s luxurious sequencing helps draws the listener further and further into its reverie.

Mama’s Basement is written like a love letter to Seattle, but its a Seattle many of us don’t know or remember: it’s South Lake Union before Amazon, the CD before Paul Allen or Uncle Ike’s (lamented in the poignant “Home Don’t Feel Like Home”), the era of the Emerald City Boys and of Eddie “Sugar Bear” Wells, of Digible Planets and Brown’s own unsung Ghetto Chilldren. Personal projects like this can often feel indulgent, but knowing Brown’s history it’s hard not to feel like he’s earned this; reminiscences on his first toke (“My 1st Hello”) and the eponymous basement (clear-eyed opener “Mama’s Motivation”) are endearing when couched in the AM jazz production he’s known for. The rapping is confident and accomplished throughout, with sly, lightening touches of humor (“GOT HEEM!”; “Gr8”) offset by solemn musings on the changing tide (“PO PO”; “August”), and it’s also a testament to D’s role as a unifier of burgeoning underground talent that the album’s features, most unknown, match his bars gamely. And of course, there’s that production, all golden and inviting, with an unshakable, extremely pleasant organic quality; knowing Brown allowed mistakes during the album’s gestation only helps to enhance its unique atmosphere. When the record soars it soars, like on the resplendent “On MAMAS” or the heady “If,” but more important is the consistency, the fact that there’s no real low point across the record’s sixteen tracks. Clearly Brown has learned a great deal from his extended dedication to the craft, and Mama’s Basement is further evidence that we’re lucky to have him still working tirelessly for our city’s hip-hop community.

Recommended in sunset blunt smoke.