Even if you can't muster much enthusiasm for Brother Ali, there's still a good reason to check out the Rhymesayers rapper's show at the Turner Hall Ballroom on Saturday: opener Fashawn. The 21-year-old Fresno rapper is coming off of a breakthrough 2009 that saw the release of several strong mixtapes (including The Antidote, produced entirely by the Alchemist) and a debut album that critics deemed a near classic, Boy Meets World.
Some particularly smitten critics even likened Boy Meets World to Nas' Illmatic, a comparison its cover art clearly invites. Fashawn's debut isn't quite that transcendent, but it does hold together in a way few debuts do, thanks to the joyous, DJ Premier-esque production of Exile, the San Diego hip-hop producer who has positioned himself as a fresher alternative to 9th Wonder in recent years. Exile's sprightly production comes at the expense of some of the grit and grim of Fashawn's mixtapesparticularly The Antidote, a street-toughened mix that delivered on Fashawn's promise of "razor-under-the-tongue raps"but it's a worthwhile trade-off, and the more uptempo beats nicely balance Fashawn's bleakly realistic verses about drug addiction and suicide.
Posted below are videos for Boy Meets World's singles, "Our Way" and the considerably brighter "Life As a Shorty," a "when I was young" throwback that treads a little cute for my taste, but is still poignant in the way that it hints at certain traumas without explicitly mentioning them (Fashawn's actual childhood was much bleaker than the one depicted here).
