Dr. Ooo – MAIL MAN
Dr. Ooo has been a purveyor of wordplay in the Buffalo hip hop scene for minute. Drew Hartman’s rap project has been going strong since before Soundcloud was an era. For over a decade, he’s been combining his Rhymesayer-flavored poetic delivery with some of the tastiest boom bap beats and samples this side of the Pharcyde. Our Album of the Week is Ooo’s latest full-length, MAIL MAN, where the delivery thankfully is packed with dope beats and heady lines instead of Spectrum bills.
Mail Man’s kicks off the rapping on “Stranger Things” – a lyrical tour-de-force packed with tight flows, metaphors, and double entendres. Production-wise, we’re in a transported back to that comfortable boom bap place with delicate trumpets that allow Ooo’s wordplay to be the star of the show. “Been a hot shot since we was playing hopscotch / I was sipping Big Gulp and shawty brought me Pop Rocks.”
Tracks are tight on MAIL MAN, usually not more than three minutes. Though Ooo’s wordplay is usually his staple, he takes great care in letting the thoughtfulness in oftentimes understated production shine. Take the closing 30 seconds of “Let it Ride,” where DJ Cutler’s scratching and the prodding, intentional drums get a moment in the sun. Other beats have a whimsical flavor to them, including “Buffalo Dosido,” whose instrumental was built for little kids to hold hands and run counter-clockwise around a tree trunk.
These playful sonics and picturesque imagery are juxtaposed when Ooo’s psyche slips through the cracks. Though he’s quick to distract you with laugh-out-loud lyrics, Ooo opts for spoken word in some spaces, and takes a break from the swagger in self-reflective moments like on “Letters of Thanks,” where he sidesteps guilt in the line: “Said some things that I regret that might follow me alone to my headstone / but I’ve got better things to do like listen to Sharon Jones in my headphones.”
The “Mailman” motif provides continued context and inspiration for lines, songs and interludes, adding depth to a project already packed wordplay that gets you craving a Genius tab.
When he steps out of the uniform, Ooo remains a Buffalo rapper – verses and songs frequently tie back to our city, with references to the weather, streets, and pizza spots. MAIL MAN is the latest offering from an artist who’s been serving the scene for better than a decade – and the postal code landscape for one of the area’s sharpest lyricists to turn into a playground.
Dr. Ooo celebrates the release of the new album Friday, November 29th at Milkies. In the meantime, take a listen on Spotify, Soundcloud, and other platforms, including the YouTube embed below:
Categorised in: Album of the Week
This post was written by Matt Moretti