I'm not going too far out on a limb predicting that B*Right are going to tick off or annoy a good chunk of the local rap scene, if they haven't already. The young Milwaukee rap group hit the ground running last year, gigging hard and promoting themselves even harder, and this week released its first mixtape, Ditto, which is likely to cement their reputation as one of the city's more divisive rap acts. Its cocky mix of minimalistic party rap, slacker hip-hop, clubby pop and Das Racist-styled tomfoolery offers a little bit of something for just about everybody to hate, but that's not a bad thing. Safe to a fault and too often hindered by its own classicism, Milwaukee's rap scene always needs a few more rabble-rousers to shake things up, and B*Right is eager to enlist.
Ditto, posted for free streaming and download at the group's Bandcamp site, isn't a game changer. It's as uneven as most every debut mixtape, and it struggles to maintain the group's nutty energy from track to track, and even from verse to versesome boil over with brazen, youthful arrogance while others are practically yawned. But there are sparks throughout. The group is at their best when they adopt a fighting stance on battle-ready tracks "Jet Pack & Wings," "B*right Rebel Soldier" and particularly "B*ased," which with its enervating, stripped-down electronic beat plays like an assault against hip-hop's old guard. Ditto is a bold, if erratic, first strike from a young group hellbent on making a name for themselves as quickly as possible. It'll be exciting to see how their next move plays out.
