If modern punk music seems to have long moved on from the social commentary and rage that made it so poignant and influential in the first place, and hip-hop has primarily become a place where the same beats, the same autotuned whine, and the same self-centered, shallow victimisation have become the norm, then Codefendants are here to put things right.
Their music is a deft blend of hip-hop grooves, ska guitars, punk energy, and unchecked fury, but the lyrical component makes This Is Crime Wave such an important sonic document. Of course, given the people involved – Ceschi Ramos, Get Dead vocalist Sam King and the legendary “Fat Mike” Burkett as co-writer, musician and producer – the lyricism is full of dexterous wordplay, wit, and wisdom and wanders easily between the profound and the profane, but there is real depth here too.
The songs found on this debut album cover all topics, subjects that affect the man in the street, and solutions on which the future of the very fabric of society relies upon. As the creators of the music put it, “It’s a trip to the dark center of their lives, their words and pasts both lyrically and musically, all broken homes and broken hearts within a broken system.”
The album runs from the purely personal, “Suckers” seeing Ceschi musing on the sort of advice he wished he had growing up, all put to a stomping piano groove, while “Coda-fendants” is an almost spoken word ballad on the ravages of the opioid crisis. And between it, songs like “Disaster Scenes” join the dots between systemic issues and personal trauma.
It is an album that runs between screaming crescendos and whispered lulls, between whistful reflection and rage-filled indignation, always put to the coolest and impactful music…and proof that impact isn’t always about volume and speed but often more effective when built of supple groove and more subtle energies.
Bored with punk posing? Are you tired of vacuous, self-serving rappers and hip-hop artists who have forgotten why the sound and scene arose in the first place? Need an album that speaks to you, to everyone? Missing music which speaks truth to power? Well, you know what to do.
