Nasa "The Iomega Years: A Decade of Lost Beats"

So you are a producer, you know you have tons of unused beats that you've made throughout the years. You say to yourself, "Self I have all these beats that no one has heard, and some of these are damn good, what can I do to get these out so the general public can hear them." Instead of either just ignoring your inner voice as so many of us do or going the standard why of throwing your best on random "albums" and call them beat tapes you decide to do something different. What if these beats are used to tell a story? But what story, they don't really have a common theme or sound really but wait...what if it tells the story of the past decade, each beat helps shine the light on a particular year and what if each beat came from the year it talks about. Damn that's a good idea. Ladies and gentlemen that is the conversation that I imagine Nasa had when he came up with the idea of "The Iomgea Years: A Decade of Lost Beats," because that is exactly what this is; a collection of beats that tell the story of 1999-2009, year by year by focusing on one beat and one key event that year.

Typically my reviews are a track by track analysis of the album but "the iomega years" is a bit different it is a hybrid of a mix, beat tape, and album so after much deliberation on how to approach it I have decide...to fall into my usual pattern and check out each track because damn it, it is one of the things that separates my rambling reviews from all the other blogs out there, so here we go.

The album begins with "Iomega2k (1999)" with the news intro being the Dick Clark welcoming us into the year 2000. As Mr. Clark's voice fades the beat becomes audible. A very dirty crackly drum with some strings and other effects make this signature Nasa beat, rather surprised this is in the unused pile because it fits in very well with Nasa's own group "The Presence" with him and Cirrus Minor but there is always something that may or may not be right for each artist.

"Crisis of the Iomega (2000)" begins with the voice of George W. Bush discussing his apparent victory in the 2000 election it continues with what I can only describe as pissed off, angry beat looking for some revenge or at least resolution. Nasa also decided to throw in Al Gore in the middle of the track to add to the memory of the fight that went all the way to the Supreme Court on who actually won the 2000 Presidential Election.

The events of 9/11 are captured in "Iomega's Revenge (2001)" and it is a surprising uptempo beat with a good amount of hope in it with and underlying guitar that gives the appearance of danger that midway through becomes the dominant sound before the rest of the beat comes back in. "Iomega Bullets (2002)" discusses the DC Sniper attack before a haunting beat takes over and has you looking over your back for what may or may not be coming after you.

No surprise the Nasa chose the "Shock and Awe" campaign to introduce "Iomega Moves (2003)," the beat even has a underlying drum march with other instruments layered on top, and mid way though the drums drop out for just a few seconds leaving a great bass and piano duo. It works even better because Nasa brings the drums back before before dropping them and the piano for another few seconds leaving just the bass.

The aptly named "The Iomega Loser's Anthem (2004)" uses John Kerry's 2004 concession speech as the backdrop. Hard-hitting drums and a great bass line continue throughout this beat making it a grat beat to put your headphones on and just "veg out" to. What might be surprising to people who know Uncommon Records is that Nasa actually got Kanye West to appear on the track "Snap Iomega Pop (2005)" (so what if it was from "A Concert for Hurricane Relief" and his infamous "George Bush hates people" remark.) The choice of using Kanye's remarks instead of just a discussion about Katrina pays off because of the sound of the beat, especially the vocals that occur throughout the song "snap POP snap snap snap snap POP," almost has a feel of something Kanye would use in one of his more current beats.

"Iomega Injustice (2006)" uses a child talking about the Sean Bell shooting to introduce the track. It is a somber beat with a very soft almost reggae style rhythm deep in the background. The beginning of our current economic problems are detailed in"Iomega Seers (2007)." This track has a different sound than the others on the album for a good reason, Agartha Audio aka Dig Dug joins Nasa for one of the most interesting beats on "Iomega Years." The track turns out great which is impresses me considering you have two producers who were able to work together to make a fully functioning beat while not sounding like either of them but not sounding out of place either.

The track selected for 2008, "Tears of Iomega (2008)" captures the election of Barrack Obama and features a beat that is actually somewhat similar to the cadence of the president's speaking voice, or maybe that is just my imagination, but it works wonderfully. The album ends with "Paranoia San Iomega," introduced by people outraged by health care reform and that is what the beat captures: outrage. But after a short spurt of this, the track goes quiet before it begins again, it creates the appearance of a debate going on, one side speaking loudly and once they stop the other side begins and this continues throughout the beat.

Instead of making just another unreleased beat tape, Nasa decided to do something a little different, take one beat from each year to show his different sounds and styles and using one of the main stories from each year to act as a backdrop. What really impresses me about this album is how well it flows, it could easily be a single track mix and you would not be able to tell a difference. It makes me excited for more Nasa productions on future albums and maybe more albums similar to this, possibly one a year, one beat each month. But what might be the best thing about "The Iomega Years" is you can download it for free, so go here and do that now.