Guilty Pleasure: "The 7 Day Theory" Makaveli the Don Killuminati

The first time Makaveli came up on the stereo in my car, Emily turned to me, confused, and asked, “Who is this?” Nonplussed, I answered easily, “It's Makaveli, the Don Killuminati”. She stared at me for several seconds before stating, with zero irony, “I don't even know you”. Her head was shaking as she started laughing. I remember this moment every time I hear this iconic album. It's still the only true rap album I own, and if I must say so myself, it's a pretty good representation of the genre from what I've heard. For whatever reason, when I hear any other rap I hold it to this standard, the first and only rap album I've ever really loved.

You might be asking yourself, “But why is this the only one, Harry? And for that matter, you've talked about other rap albums on ThaBombShelter before, what about those?” Well, let me tell you. As far as the other two albums I've talked about here - “Deltron 3030” and “Things Fall Apart”- I don't really consider those the same kind of rap as Makaveli, as I'm sure the rap aficionados out there would agree. For one thing, Tupac is straight up West Coast Gangsta Rap, I'd be willing to argue that he's the epitome of the sub-genre. For another, I consider both The Roots and Deltron 3030 to be more underground rap. They both use nontraditional samples and beats as far as I can tell, and while The Roots are popular and quite high profile in the world of pop-culture, I don't think they're quite as ubiquitous as Kanye or Tupac.

My good friend Thayer has tried his best to get me to listen to more Rap, but as much as I'd like to try, I just can't get over a few of my pet peeves that always come to mind when I try to listen to new stuff with an open mind. One- I hate the kind of lazy sampling that artists like Puffy and Kanye (yes, Kanye) use when they pretty much lift an entire song and sing their lyrics over it. I remember when Puffy saturated the airwaves with his “cover” of some Aerosmith song when “Armageddon” came out, and more recently Kanye's use of Daft Punk's “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” in his song, “Harder”. I just think it's cheap to inject so little of yourself in a song. Using Deltron and The Roots as an example, Deltron samples goodness-knows-what, songs so obscure and so well integrated that I have no idea what the source is. And The Roots, at least what I know of them, use real instruments to create most of their beats, which I have a great deal of respect for. Two- the culture of pimps and ho's and bling and whatever, it's just irritating and it perpetuates a stereotype that I really don't think should be perpetuated. “Deltron 3030” is a concept album about an intergalactic space battle, and “Things Fall Apart” is a politically charged rant on the injustice of our society. “The 7 Day Theory” is almost a love letter to Tupac's home town of LA, and to the only life he knows, one of violence, gangs, and drugs. Furthermore, the album is clearly a concept album, the posthumous release, which was eerily prescient thanks to the events that took place shortly before it's release. While I understand that the stereotypes and attitudes embodied in Tupac's masterpiece aren't favorable by any means, for whatever reason (probably nostalgia), I'm not nearly as bothered by the themes his music portrays.

One last bit about why I consider this a “Guilty Pleasure”. First is the fact that none of my close friends (Thayer excepted) really have any idea as to why I love this album so much, but I think the real reason I love this album is because of the long history I've got with it. You see, when I was a freshman in High School, my sister was forced to drive me to school. She had a silver Chevy Sprint (think tin can with a 3 cylinder engine and a top speed of about 67 mph downhill with a tailwind), and a tape deck. On the way to school we would listen to the same tape every morning. While No Doubt's “Tragic Kingdom” monopolized the tape deck for several months, once she started dating her future husband (yes, she married her High School sweetheart and they're still together some 11 years later), she put in “The 7 Day Theory” and I don't think she ever took it out. So there I was, an impressionable 14 year old kid, listening to one of the most hardcore gangsta rap albums of all time, and now, over a decade later, I still love it, I still know all of the words, and I still throw up my hands ironically during the breakdown on “Hail Mary”. I mean, shit, who wouldn't?

“Hail Mary” Makaveli the Don Killuminati NSFW
“Toss It Up” Makaveli the Don Killuminati NSFW
“To Live and Die in LA” Makaveli the Don Killuminati NSFW (I love in the intro, “I had sex with your wife, not in those words”)

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