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Album Review: Dujeous's City Limits

Hardworking New York City band's debut album is worth the wait.

by Douglas Passion | 2004.03.23

Hip-Hop’s adherence to the doctrine of “two turntables and a microphone” is so entrenched that actual instruments are only snatched up for Saturday Night Live appearances and for those precious moments when rap artists decide they’ve out-grown their musical genre and start awkwardly strumming guitars. Even with the recent scourge of rock-rap fusion, the number of well-known groups who use a foundation of live instrumentation peters out at basically one, the Roots. With their debut full-length album, City Limits, Dujeous proves to be the rare Hip-Hop act capable of making listeners reconsider the time-honored ethos of Jam Master Jay’s one-man band.

Despite the dearth of recorded material Dujeous (pronounced doo-gee-us) has produced, they’re no newcomers to the New York City underground circuit – since 1996, the group has performed indefatigably at local venues such as S.O.B.’s, Lion’s Den, Mercury Lounge. Even if you haven’t heard them live, they still may sound familiar; the seven-man team provided much of the musical score for the ESPN program The Life. Either way, City Limits is the first time they’ve managed to knock out a complete LP -- and happily, the results are worth the wait.

Whether the music is Hip-Hop, Rock, Jazz or Deep South Odes to Familial Incest, one of the most difficult challenges for touring veterans is channeling the energy of the live performance into recorded material. It’s a sage industry rule of thumb -- you can’t shove the sweat and crowd noise and topless groupies and backstage lines of yayo into a CD case without seeing your manufacturing costs skyrocket. Another quandary facing the transition from stage to iPod is that the same listeners eager to leap around in a booze-fueled frenzy at a concert probably prefer something a little more nuanced for the subway ride to work. It’s a fine line, and few artists manage to harness the electricity of their live shows without sacrificing some studio craftsmanship (and vice verse). Dujeous’s ability to balance the aesthetics of their live show with the often-limiting format of the LP is one of City Limits’ greatest successes.

Comprised of three rappers, a bassist, a guitarist, a trumpeter and drummer, Dujeous populates a stage as tightly as any post-Wu-Tang group. Their exact production techniques are unclear, but City Limits bounces with more of a traditional Hip-Hip sound than one might expect from such a diverse ensemble (shit, the vocal loop on “Sometimes” is almost Kanye-esque). But this is a good thing – too often “experimental” rap eschews the power of a dope loop in favor of drifting melodies that even a female passenger in Nore’s whip couldn’t bob their head to. Dujeous provides far more interwoven sounds than the typical MPC-butchered beat, but they rarely overdo it.

Since City Limits starts with several songs devoted to stage-rocking and shit-talking, a listener may get the creeping perception that these dudes are just a bunch of lyrical lyricists. Let’s be honest – nobody really wants to hear sixty minutes of rappin’ about rappin’. Fortunately, the topics veer into topics like social commentary on “It’s…”, money problems on “Cake” and recollections of relationships gone sour on “Spilt Milk” The early tracks are entertaining, but Dujeous truly shines when they address distinctive issues with their blend of lyrical poignancy and creative production.

After blessing us with a debut as good as City Lights, Dujeous better not make us wait another decade for a follow-up gem. In the meantime, we’ll be able to sing along at the shows.

City Limits is available in stores on Third Earth Music.

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