Review - Charles Hamilton "Well, Isn't This Awkward," "My Brain is Alive" and " Every Charles Hamilton Ex-Girlfriend's Worst Nightmare"

Here's a preview of what you'll probably not be reading come Thursday in the Daily Tar Heel. I promise it'll be there though.

With his release schedule of late, Charles Hamilton could have challenged even the late James Brown as the “Hardest Working Man in Show Business.”

Continuing what he started with his Hamiltonization Process – eight mixtapes, one every two weeks over four months – Hamilton released three tapes over a weeklong period starting February 12^th onto the now-suspecting interweb hip-hop faithful. The nasally New York MC retains his signature poignant approach to rhyme writing across the three mixes, but on two further pursues a vehicle to better communicate his message; the concept LP.

With the first of the three releases, Hamilton themed his Well, Isn’t This Awkward as a movie, a Valentine’s Day feature presentation. As the 12 tracks chronicle the romantic lengths and missteps the Charles-esque protagonist encounters, Hamilton’s ability to adorn his mixtape’s sleeves with his emotions becomes obvious as a number of choruses quake when he wrenches the words to fit the beats; a proper gesture for the tapes contents.

Serving as a successor to Well, the final installment of the trilogy, Every Charles Hamilton Ex-Girlfriend’s Worst Nightmare, explores the failed relationships of Mr. Hamilton. Each track on the mixtape covers either a singular or group of females – identified by the song title – and what went wrong, all while fragmenting elements of Kanye West’s 808s and Heartbreak into the compositions.

Although the first and third tapes contained more of an aim, Hamilton captures himself best on February 16^th’s My Brain Is Alive. The stream of conscience, therapeutic rapping that proliferated the Process is in full effect as Hamilton medicates himself with vents ranging from “Pleasant Overthinking” to the inevitable rise of Charles Hamilton.

Throughout the three releases Hamilton keeps the Sonic the Hedgehog references and irregular-to-rap rock and 90s dancehall samples coming. Hamilton’s self-production continues to ascend as each tape reaches an audience, as does his quality lyrical output.

The only thing left for Charles Hamilton to accomplish is finding a filter, because even though the constant bombardment of new material feeds the Internet junkies, if Hamilton put out a third of his current quota, the quality of each project would reap the benefits.