MTSU has been a quiet beast in the room this year, molding a new generation of motivated and talented rapper/producers through their esteemed recording industry program while seldom leaking a teaser into the rest of the town. But earlier this April they released unsigned Nashville native Classic Williams’ 2nd tape, The Soul of Nigger Charlie, mixed as an autobiographical account of one man’s struggles to overcome his oppressed life as a suburban only-child and into the fame and glory of a respected lyricist of his day and also as a soundtrack to a ’70s Blaxploitation film, cover art and all.
Coming in strong with the soul cinema funk instrumental to set the mood, Honey Simmons introduces Charlie and buckles everyone up for take-off better than Jackie Brown herself. It sounds like Rza helped out with her cameos. Her warm voice then fades as Classic takes off into a string-section sample looping on a mid-tempo drum machine comparable to some early Kanye mixes. These first two songs, “Got That Soul” and “Day to Day (Legend),” establish Charlie as a famed man over the two similar beats before sharing his humble upbringing in the handsomely mixed suburbia tale, “Sometimes Day,” including the high pitch soul singer sample for the chorus before Honey Simmons comes back around to check on everyone again.
You can’t have a good Blaxpoitation without the over-the-top antagonist too. In this case, it’s an unabashedly foul-mouthed racist, Lamey Dodges, who can’t let go of not being able to get Charlie on the phone, Charlie stabbing people, or Charlie being black, for that matter. He’s vocal about all of it.
The latter half of the album is more intricately layered and progresses the personality of Charlie through his drive in life in “For the Win” and his party prowess in the potential club hit, “Dreamwork.” He also touches on his love for the female, be it plant or human, in the bellowing horn sample of “Groovy” or the heart-felt “Motivated Girl.” There’s also one that touches on traveling around the world on Oprah’s dime by the time he was in his mid-teens, which is apparently based on a true story. But the catchiest track on the album is the soulfully sampled “Head to the Sky,” reiterating his love for head-bobbing early-Kanye mixes with the lyrical punch and flow of Mos Def in lyricism.
The Soul of Nigger Charlie can be downloaded free on Classic Williams’ homepage, classicwilliams.com, as well as live performances and news on his upcoming full-length album, Epic Wins, that’s being mastered now. He’s also involved with an urban revival group Kloud Krowd whose homemade music videos and upcoming events calendar can be seen at kloudkrowd.net, if you’re curious.
