Yup, that’s a rapper…

Okay, I’ve been bad. Not as bad as some people, of course, but I do admit that I’ve erred during the past year, no matter how minor the misstep.

That’s right, I put together a Top Ten list before the end of the actual calendar year and now I’m paying for my indiscretion. I messed up, okay. Please forgive me. It’s not like you’re perfect or anything, you jerks.

Sorry, that was unwarranted. I shouldn’t have come down on you like that. Here, want a piece of my Kit-Kat? We cool, homes? Great. Let’s move on.

I egregiously omitted an album from my Top Ten. To be fair, I hadn’t heard it until the other day, so I really didn’t omit it so much as I overlooked it. Nonetheless, it was forgotten. I intend to make up for that slight but posthumously adding it to the list and extending my Top Ten to a Top Eleven. I know it doesn’t have the same ring to it that a Top Ten has, but give it a shot, why dontcha? You might end up liking it, telling your friends and family all about it, start categorizing the things you like and dislike into groups of eleven and, years from now, be served with a lawsuit by yours truly for co-opting my idea without my expressed written permission. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.

The album in question is by Brooklyn rapper/Beck-enthusiast/songwriter/weirdo, Tim Fite. Affectionately titled Over the Counter Culture, it is a teeming indictment of just about everything that is wrong with the country today. From the prevalence of superfluous medication, an unnecessary war, the bilking of the average citizen, shitty hip-hop fueled culture and a populace that simply doesn’t think about things enough, Mr. Fite tackles just about everything that he thinks is stupid about the world around him. I have to say, I agree with him, word for word.

In the title track, he pulls no punches, with lines like “…that’s just piss you serving/and I’m not one to be drinkin’/no f#%&ing rich man’s urine” he lets it be known exactly what this whole record is about, discontent with the way things are. Whether he’s railing against a lack of perspective in our consumer culture “Camouflage,” or calling out the marketing of violent gang culture as a positive “I’ve Been Shot,” or even flat-out calling “artists” like Kanye West nothing more than passing fads “Soup of the Day,” he makes it apparently obvious that he doesn’t give two shits whether we agree with him or not, he’s going to say his piece.

The overall feel of the record is one of discontent slathered in a very gothic pastiche that, while it is always an overt hip-hop record, at times makes it feel like there is something else very sinister going on behind the scenes. It’s gloomy, sure, but it’s funny at the same time. With his nasally whirr and off-beat delivery, Fite evokes a bit of Mr. Lif while still being more than original.

Oh, and the icing on top of this delicious album? It’s available FOR FREE DOWNLOAD right here. So, don’t take my word for it, decide for yourself.