Cal Chuchesta - I Am Angry: TRACK REVIEW

There's been a lull recently of hip hop that has been piquing my interest. I'll be soon posting a (late) review for one of the latest albums to do so, but in the meantime, I wanted to touch down on an up-and-coming artists who has the blogosphere abuzz right now.

I'm, of course, referring to none other than Hartford, Connecticut's own Cal Chuchesta, whose debut mixtape, The New CALassic, is a little more than one day away from dropping. A few days ago, he released his seventh (yes, seventh) single leading up to its release, entitled "I Am Angry." 

Photo of Cal Chuchesta from a recent press release.

"I Am Angry" is unique in Cal's short discography in that it is his first track that features him being angry or "mad," as he phrases it here. Cal's signature sound thus far has been one of positive, family-friendly raps (an obvious influence from one of his hip hop heroes, Will Smith), rapping on such G-rated subjects as hot chocolate, making dinner, throwing up, and the unreliability of Apple products. Never have we seen the dark side of Cal like we do on this track, tearing into his haters like a Wisconsonian badger into a family of diseased rats.

The track begins with the rookie MC cautiously exploring his emotional reaction to being dissed, an experience new to him but so familiar to veteran rappers. After searching his feelings, and just as the eerily sparse trap-influenced beat drops, Cal raps with chilling emotion and youthful energy the earworm hook, "I am angry! Really mad! I am angry! And I can't control my temper, feeling bad!"

On the subsequent verses, we see Cal making his characteristically slick plays on words and witty references, nodding at such cultural icons as Rush, Claude Monet, and Comcast. As on his prior singles, his flow can sound amateur or even soft to the ears of a hip hop community so accustomed to overly complex and vulgar lyrics. But, again like on his prior raps, a patient listen will reveal incredible flashes of brilliance. 

On the first verse, for instance, Cal spits a line that could very well be the best of his short career so far: "Rappers can't ride bikes cause they can't handle bars." Hot. Freaking. Dang. The wit of this play on words, in case it went over your head, is that he is using the phrase "handle bars" to refer to the other wack rappers who can't control their flows into decent bars AND Cal uses "handle bars" to refer to the handlebars on the aforementioned bike, an image which he continues to flow off of for the rest of the verse. Wow!!

This is just one example of the brainy lyrics to be found here. But perhaps the most memorable part of this track is the raw emotion seen building on each repetition of the hook. By the final repetition, Cal is almost literally screaming into the mic with throat-searing rage. The intensity of Cal's anger and the honesty with which he expresses it is as refreshing as it is sobering.

Really, this is something you have to hear to believe, so check out the official audio below:

No one is doing this kind of thing in hip hop today. Suffice it to say, I am waiting with bated breath for this mixtape to drop. Follow this link to join in the countdown to this landmark release!