| The Mammoth Tusk | |
|---|---|
| Studio album by Eslam Jawaad | |
| Released | 6th July 2009 |
| Recorded | 2008-2009 |
| Genre | Hip Hop Arabic hip hop Rap Political Hip Hop |
| Length | 50 minutes |
| Label | Eslamaphobic & RPEG Ltd |
| Producer | Eslam Jawaad, De La Soul, Damon Albarn, Focus, Shadia Mansour, Miskeena, Lord Sear, DJ Maceo, The Narcicyst, GZA, Ledr P, Omar Offendum, The RZA DJ Lady S, DJ Vans, Wu-Tang Clan & Cilcaringz |
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| BBCMusic | [1] |
| IndieLondon | [2] |
The Mammoth Tusk is the debut album by Lebanese-Syrian rapper Eslam Jawaad, the album was released on the 6th July 2009. It features guest collaborations from: Miskeena, Lord Sear, Shadia Mansour, and Rude Jude. The album also features more mainstream acts including: De La Soul, frontman of: Blur, Gorillaz and The Good, The Bad & The Queen, Damon Albarn. The latter of which Jawaad worked with on The Good, The Bad & The Queen's self-titled debut album on an unreleased B-side entitled "Mr. Whippy"[1] and also appeared with Albarn on Gorillaz's Escape to Plastic Beach World Tour when he rapped on their iconic song "Clint Eastwood".[2] When the group played in Damascus, he rapped in his native Lebanese, as he does on the song "Alarm Chord" which also features Albarn.[3] His song "Pivot Widdit" was used in the Dubai film City of Life, and "Siasa" in Rendition.[4]
Louis Pattison of BBC Music said: "Most rappers have probably given their resume a slight tweak to confer the right sort of street experience, but if Eslam Jawaad is guilty of embellishing his past, you've just got to hand it to him for his impressive feats of imagination. Formerly a member of, hmm, the Lebanese Mafia, Jawaad claims he moved to London following the botched sale of an eight million dollar mammoth tusk. There, he hooked up with Cilvaringz, a Dutch affiliate of the Wu-Tang Clan, and following a spate of recording, made contact with Damon Albarn, who invited the rapper to contribute an Arabic rap – which would become the future Mr Whippy – to the debut album from The Good, The Bad & The Queen. If that sounds an unlikely turn of events, The Mammoth Tusk is proof it's not all hot air. Boasting production credits from The RZA, De La Soul, and Damon Albarn, Jawaad's debut proper is irreverent and fun, playing up his backstory with smart rhymes and a showman's flourish. Pivot Widdit is a Timbaland-tinged club track that finds Jawaad proclaiming himself the beat butcher of Beirut city over a niggling Arabic-tinged hook and certainly, if anyone's got claim to an Arabic sample here, it's not Timbaland. Meanwhile Beirut and the Albarn-produced Alarm Chord, an eerie ska lope reminiscent of a gloomy Gorillaz, find him rapping in his native tongue. There is some political engagement here: Criminuhl finds him musing on his identity in a country that mistrusts him because of the colour of his skin - Only thing I’m blowing up is charts, he declares. Indeed, a little seriousness is welcome, because Jawaad's playfulness sometimes gets the better of him: Star Spangled Banner, which sees him comparing parts of his lover's anatomy to various US states, is not an especially good look. But his wit is sharp as a cutlass on "Rewind DJ", a De La Soul-produced cut that chops up the hook from Aaliyah's Try Again as a smart dig at substandard rappers - and going on The Mammoth Tusk, he's certainly earned the right."