Album review: Pyramid Vrita – ‘The Story of Marsha Lotus’

‘The Story of Marsha Lotus’ by Pyramid Vrita is an extraordinary but frustrating record.  Pyramid Vrita is the alias of Hal Williams perhaps better known as one half of the Jet Age of Tomorrow, half of the Super 3 and a member of Odd Future. He’s 19 and prolific – a rare combination. This generation’s Christina Milian.

The LP’s title track is a 15 minute sprawling affair. Williams is a man with an awful lot of ideas and he decides to present them all in one song. As a listener you have to follow behind Williams as he lurches from genre to genre. This isn’t background music, it requires your concentration. One moment you could be listening to A Tribe Called Quest, the next moment it’s Lovesexy era Prince. Genius and genuinely experimental.

‘Enlightenment’ is a brilliant track. It benefits from being largely instrumental; more of a collection of different sounds than a song. Unsettling and adventurous. You wait five minutes for a hook that never materialises. Hip-hop’s version of Waiting for Godot.

So production clearly isn’t the problem. The problems are lyrical. It’s disappointing that an exceptionally gifted producer resorts to lazy misogyny.  The title track begins without the predatory menace that characterises many of the records released by Odd Future. He artfully manages to straddle the thin line between creepy and charming but then goes onto to describe a violent sexual encounter. This is less charming. Throughout the LP women are referred to as ‘bitch’ which is either an unfortunate choice of name by our female protagonist’s parents or offensive. Am I shocked that a member of Odd Future has less than enlightened views about women? No. I just find it really tedious.

When the production is this forward thinking you expect more lyrically. Hip-hop needs somebody like Williams. ‘The Story of Marsha Lotus’ should have been the sound of a gauntlet being thrown down to other producers. Sadly you can’t hear that gauntlet because Williams is rapping too loudly about his dick.

‘The Story of Marsha Lotus’ is out now on Stroll On Records.

- Dan Austin