Chester Copperpot - Chapter 7 EP: Underground Chicago Emcee / Producer Impresses with Sparkling Debut

I liked this cat from the moment I started reading his bio, and peeped his website, BEFORE I even heard his music. Why? Well, I think Mr Copperpot appeals to the bitterness gene in me - he carries himself in that dry sarcastic manner that I'm so familiar with, and in addition he's often as disillusioned with Hiphop as I am. In fact, the bankruptcy influences in the title of this EP, come from a self-inflicted monetary crisis at age 18, that I gotta give him nothing but dap for…

"When I turned 18 I went off to college and got a credit card. Sitting in the boonies in rural western Illinois was no fun man, so I went on the internet and realised I could buy plane tickets. Shit, I went around the world… Visa took me everywhere I wanted to be, I guess. Needless to say I accrued some debt, but I bought a truck load of records and some gear and started making beats. I wasn't really feeling rap music at the time, I was disappointed in my culture. I wanted something more."

Don't we all? Anyway, following his stint as worldwide jetsetter, Copperpot decided to sit down and start banging out tracks. This EP is a collection of his singles, released to prepare the world for the full length album. Each cut here is as notable for its intricate production, as the guests Chester finds himself rhyming with. 'Take'n'Over' features underground heavyweight Ed O G trading rhymes with Copperpot over a demented Beatnuts-y loop circa 'Watch Out Now', while on 'Money Grip', Chester shows that his world travels aren't totally over, crossing the Atlantic to link up with UK hardhitter Braintax over another thumping instrumental. Braintax totally rips it…

"Well I'm standing at the bus stop eating my chips
That's french-fried potato not a packet of crisps
If you don't know I got force so erratic
Internet battles? Please! That's nothing but e-static…
… man I don't like chiefs, that's in cheesy thugs
Hard men of R'n'b grabbing girls in clubs
Try that in my local pub, you get glassed in the eye quick
Everlast wannabees with Cartman sidekicks
You're oh so funny to watch
In last years crappy FUBU and Nike shox
Tell you I rap, you probably think probably not
I stay funky like the bass in the theme from SWAT."

And he also calls someone a 'wanker', which is always a winner.

Braintax also appears on 'Out The Bunker' which features some incredibly bouncy percussion, and a sharply cut MOP-sampling chorus. 'You Know The Name' features MTV 1999 freestyle champion Profound over a ploddingly addictive piano break and another hook full of cuts and slices, something sadly lacking in much of today's Hiphop music.

Elsewhere, 'What Dreams Are Made Of' is a collab cut, where Profound returns, and brings Diverse and Longshot with him to spit over a mournful track, chockful of dark strings, and nabbed-from-a-black'n'white-movie horns and xylophones. 'Cut The Cake' meanwhile is Copperpot's debut release, and sees him link up with local Chi-town emcee Bamski The Bigot (who sounds like a more animated Rakim) over a set of vicious kicks, and some more of those horns.

At just six cuts, this EP may be short and sweet, but it, and / or the singles that were pillaged to compile it are still worth seeking out. Copperpot's name as a producer will hopefully be getting tossed around a lot more once heads check this. The standard of the beats, and the style Chester shows in compiling them, shows that Chicago ain't all about a certain Mr West at the minute.