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Dime store rappers are a nickel a dozen, just take a ride on the New York City subway or walk down a street through the borough of your choice. Personally, I miss the days when promising young hip-hoppers could be seen city-wide, carrying a big boombox on their shoulder, blasting crazy beats like a loud message to the masses. Now, they don't even bother with the CD player, these psych-cases just get in your face, spouting moronic verses while channeling their inner Tourette's syndrome. Sure, they carry pen and paper, but can they read?

Anyway, one young hip-hop soon-to-be-mogul has recently invaded my personal space--and it's all good. Wilk is a New York City native (da Bronx) who uses the subways for more than simple transportation. Riding the rails from his home in Bed-Sty way up to 207th street in Manhattan or down to Coney then round to the East Village, Wilk envisions our beautiful, if overly commercialized city, as his own personal inspiration pad. Broke Wide Open was written entirely on the New York City subway system. Does this remind me of Travis Bickle's response to the Yellow Cab dispatcher's inquiry as to whether he would work uptown and Jewish holidays, only to reply, "Anytime, anywhere, don't make no difference to me"? You bet it does! Wilk's Broke Wide Open is his personal mission statement of a journey through brain melting times.

You see, folks, our man Wilk is a real New Yawka. His friendships attest to his attachments to the Big Apple's history and entertainment circles. One of Wilk's best pals is movie producer mogul Jack Rollins. A really big cheese in this wacky industry of ours, Jack has managed none other than David Letterman, Dick Cavett, and Woody Allen, and is perhaps best known for his long time partnership with Charles H. Joffe, the executive producer for practically every Woody Allen film in existence. Not bad street cred, huh? Whenever Wilk was feeling depressed during the recording of Broke Wide Open, Rollins would simply say "Stay with it," no doubt the same advice he offered to everyone from Woody Allen to David Steinberg to Tiny Tim. That, and an egg cream is all a real New Yawka needs to get off his ass and turn lemons into lemonade.

Recorded entirely in Wilk's Bed-Sty loft, with our protagonist singing all the harmonies, playing all the instruments, and programming everything else, Broke Wide Open matches blue eyed soul vocalizing with a typical hip-hop template. Opener "Be Quiet" rides its own rails over a swaggering programmed hip-hop beat, but Wilk's vocals, which are rapper-lite at best, are actually more of the crooning, Daryl Hall (of Hall and Oates) school. Does it work? Only because Wilk's big choruses quickly grab our attention. "I need to find a white girl, I meant to say the right girl" is the kind of clever subversion Wilk offers over super catchy, infectious hooks.

There is enough evidence in the album's 14 tracks to suggest that Wilk is a crossover driven artist, from the honey dark, Creed worthy, hands-in-the-air harmonies of "Johnny" to the multi-tracked gospel chorus of "Stroke."  He gets all weird and Travis Bickle-like (again) in "Song For My Mother," proclaims his "nice Jewish boy roots" with weight in the finger-snapping, throat-humming "What Did You Mean," and creates a Ninjatune worthy moment in "Jane's Talkin' Union."

Gospel inspired, R&B enabled, and "nice Jewish boy" sanctified, Wilk is on the way up. (See Wilkmusic.com for more madness)

Wilk – Be Quiet  (MP3, 5:24)

Wilk – Stroke  (MP3, 3:25)

Plastic Little's I'm Not A Thug: From New York we head south to south Philly, where Plastic Little holds court. Think party pontifications, rabid fan base, major touring possibilities. All due to the impeccable production of Michael "SQUID" Stern coupled with the major domo MC alliances of Jonthousand, PackofRats, and No Body's Child (NBC).

Plastic Little
"I'm Not a Thug" (mp3)
from "I'm Not A Thug"
(Free News Projects)

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