Hip Hop Habit: ANatural
posted in: Features • Urban
Embattled is a funny word. With a connotation leading virgin ears to believe that it’s used to describe a subject fighting in at least a two-sided battle, it’s thrown around a lot to describe musicians (often rappers) and their struggles. Using that word to describe someone engaged in conflict is fine, but it gets irritating when the embattled subject has no one to blame but themselves. OurStage rapper ANatural (display name TheRealANatural) was embattled for real for most of his childhood and adolescence, but for no fault of his own. Bouncing around various NYC housing projects with no parents to speak of and seeing his beloved grandmother (also serving as his sole guardian) pass when he was only 10, it would be easy for Joseph Boykin to throw in the towel and let life devour him and his potential. But he didn’t. A strong sense of resilience triumphed the easy way out, and now Boykin finds himself fielding publishing offers and networking with TV personalities and, even more surprisingly, rapping like he’s king of the world.
One such song with this lofty air is Flyest. It may be difficult for purists to make sense of lines like more pictures/ more press/ lookin’ like VIPs/ no guests/ anything I feel I need I’m gonna get if they’re fully aware of his history, but he wouldn’t be the first to separate rhymes and his past. Not everybody has to brood like Eminem. The beats underneath Boykin’s happiness, consisting of a repetitive lubricated synth arpeggio and a smothering helping of ascending chords as accompaniment, all combine to make the young MC sound like he’s walking on cloud nine. Go Getta follows in the same vein with adequate ego trips, but this time the sound is an amalgamation of electronic snippets, 80s hair metal guitar power riffs, and a barrage of kick drum. While his happiness was tinted with conceit in Flyest, that conceit is now pushed to the forefront as he furiously rhymes about being a boss capable of doing it all, but not without giving a little advice along the way: Livin’ large is right/ I suggest it endorse it perfect it/ madness for the method/ roll with the punches/ I’m ready for the next one/ go until the wheels fall off/ this ain’t a test run.
Though enormously subdued in comparison to Go Getta, Boykin keeps the didactic effort up in Is It Me? Opening with morose piano and a slick minor synth riff, the track never really grows past its humble beginnings, unlike the life and times of ANatural. That said, we should probably pay attention to the guidance he gives us. Despite the egoist rhymes in the aforementioned tracks, something tells me that lines like Everywhere he go no desk work/ sleepin’ on the floor while his spine and his neck hurt/ all you can do is be the best you/ best kept secret step into those shoes and keep spittin’ til you see green like Flynn, don’t expect nothing not a thing out of them/ not a chain not a gem/ not a hi not a bye not a grin/ wish them the best whether enemy or friend are really ANatural’s true colors. Homegrown philosophies from the school of hard knocks are the best he’s got, and it’s safe to say they’ve worked for him thus far.
Boykin’s been climbing the rap game ladder since his first LP at the age of 14, and he shows no signs of slowing down. His first major music project, Musical Therapy, has caught the attention of B.E.T.’s DJ Teddy The Deal King who’s agreed to host it, and it was released last Tuesday. Get it while it’s hot!