Grieves: 88 Keys And Counting

It's been a while since I've anticipated a CD release like this one and Grieves' sophomore effort "88 Keys And Counting" does not disappoint. This time around Grieves teams up with producer Budo and by the sound of it I think it was a good decision. Recorded in Laporte, Colorado at one of the best studios on this side of the globe. At first listen you can definitely tell that this young man has already matured in his musical prowess. From his delivery to his voice Grieves just seems to be one step closer (to stardom, not the Linkin Park song)! 88 Keys And Counting is 100% more well rounded as a whole. With a few instrumental tracks (Life In The Hive, The March and Exiting The Hive) that you can vibe to when you feel like sitting back and relaxing. With a lullaby esque beat on the song "Kings" (an instant favorite of mine), Grieves sings " You don't need to fight my off, I'm well on my way. Gonna leave these cobblestones and matchsticks in the back of my brain". Grieves manages the beat so well on this song with pauses and breaks that help build up the song perfectly. You're guaranteed to hit the replay button over and over on your mp3 player. One of the reason's why Grieves succeeds in being such a good MC is that he's very easy to relate to and he does a good job on making that a possibility. "Life In The Hive" (one of the instrumental tracks I mentioned before) is all in all amazing. A song that you wanna put on when you're having a bad day, so you can really feel what you're feeling. I don't normally like instrumental tracks but this one is going to get it's fair share of play time in my pocket. On the track "Identity Cards" featuring Luckyiam, wait what? Luckyiam?! Two of my favorite dudes on the same track, I already knew this song was gonna be good without even hearing it. Grieves spits the line "I don't know what hyphy means dude and neither do my friends" and "But I do like drinkin' and shoppin' on the internet and tryin' to get Lucky to jump me into the Living Legends". Luckyiam rips up the track with his classic flow, "A good 16 is what I'm known for but a great 19 is my thing on tour, I lead her up on my bus, best believe I score, lucky lust, lucky bus, Lucky he's a whore". From the beat to the lyrics on the song "Lockdown" Grieves manages to produce a different kind of sound than what you'd expect of him. A female voice steps in and delivers a line, "Break me out of here, I'm freezing" and adds a harmonizing and chilling hum in the background. On track 15 (the second to last track) the song "Cloud Man", Grieves "steps out of the box" even more so than on the track "Lockdown". He sings his way through the beat rather than rapping over it. Lucky for him he's got a great sounding voice either way! Grieves told me that this is one of the songs he's "more proud of" and I can see why. The track adds versatility to him as a rapper, singer, song writer and beat master! Also be sure to check out the bonus song (provided on a drop card) "The Black Clover Posse Cut" aka "Clover Boys", featuring Mac Lethal & Soulcrate. "Hey, Hey, Hey!" (words I've been finding myself saying in random situations throughout the day). Overall this CD is a great piece of art. It's the type of CD that not only grows on you but consumes you! I'm definitely excited to hear the CD evolve in my ears through time. 88 Keys And Counting coming to ear drums near you November 12th (I'm dubbing this as perfect "winter" music). Be sure to check out my man Grieves on his myspace page where you can also pre-order the new CD "88 Keys And Counting".