MH the Verb album unlikely ‘Cult Classic’

When artists release new CDs, they have a few choices: They can continue with their old style, change their tune, or find a way to combine the two and make a recognizable, fresh sound. Cult Classic

MH the Verb

Classic Cult Music

Grade: C+

Rocks Like: Kid Cudi, Jay-Z

When artists release new CDs, they have a few choices: They can continue with their old style, change their tune, or find a way to combine the two and make a recognizable, fresh sound. Pitt graduate Marcus Harris, a.k.a. MH the Verb, faced this same decision when writing his first solo album to showcase his talents.

In the past, MH was known for his ability to combine live instrumentation with electronic music. Many of his songs also highlighted social justice issues, calling for activism and a better world.

Whether he’s made more music along those lines is debatable. His first track, “Winter In America,” does a good job integrating a historical speech — President Franklin Roosevelt after Pearl Harbor — with a typical hip-hop beat line. It’s soft at first, but grows in intensity as the song goes on, until it drowns out Roosevelt’s words and expands to include MH’s usual style of hip-hop meets electro-pop.

This opening transitions into a fast-paced, fast-spoken song that proclaims in the first few lines that the reason there’s “blood in the oceans” is because of humanity’s many flaws. The song, in general, is a critique of America. It obviously has a message to deliver, but it doesn’t inspire action so much as express MH’s anger.

The song “More Time” goes, “What would you do with a little more time / if you could stop the clock / and watch the world rewind?” It’s gentler in delivery, with a simple combination of drums and synthesizer notes. It’s a good, solid song for MH that says one day people will get themselves together.

But those two tracks are in stark contrast to other songs, many of which are flirtatious club rap songs, like “Lights Off.” And the song “So Good” is a tribute to a girl who things didn’t work out with — complete with descriptive language about their sex life. It’s hard to see how this fits in with MH’s usual routine and his history as a socially conscious rapper.

There are certainly some good ideas in an album that could have been much more powerful and captivating. It simply does not do MH justice.