Component System With the Auto Reverse
Album by Open Mike Eagle
Released 7 October 2022
Abstract Hip Hop
Label – Auto Reverse
Rating – 8/10
Good friends and even better collaborators.
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In January 2021, as the hip hop world reeled from the recent passing of MF DOOM, Chicago rapper Open Mike Eagle uploaded his own tribute to YouTube. Over a beat equal parts hypnotic and sentimental (produced by Illingsworth), OME expelled a concise stream of consciousness, noting his own disbelief, receiving the confirmation text, and professing his gratitude toward being able to collaborate with his hero.
The tribute, simply entitled For DOOM, appears on Mike’s eighth album A Tape Called Component System with the Auto Reverse. I’d class the tribute as ‘sobering’, but when hasn’t Open Mike Eagle been? His previous two albums documented the polymorphic impact evoked by the housing projects of Chicago, and his divorce (Brick Body Kids Still Daydream and Anime, Trauma and Divorce, respectively)
Conceptually, Component System is relaxed but not without some linearity. The narratives contain updates, still addled by the past, but handled with blessings like hindsight, optimism, and a clear head. The album can be perceived as many things; from the listener’s perspective, the latest example of a name synonymous with wild introspection, modernist wit, rap nerdiness, and quality. From Mike’s own perspective, absolutely anything, appearing as somewhat of a self-confessed crutch on TDK Scribbled Intro – “I don’t always have the words for the feelings, so I decided to make you a tape”.
Thinking back to the time OME was able to be involved with DOOM, one may also assess Component System as Mike’s most gracious album, stuffed with gratitude for good friends and even better collaborators. Mike is one of the most tactful beat-and-collaborator-pickers, as the features and producers that contribute to the second Auto Reverse project are able to adapt to his night-time introspection.
While Mike is listed as executive producer, and Kenny Segal and Daddy Kev take on mixing and mastering duties respectively, Component System is a loosely-laid revolving door of otherworldly talent. It’s not even always a case of the outside names suiting OME; Mike himself enhances his performance on CD Only Bonus Track, over a crazed Diamond D beat, as if to match Aesop Rock’s trademark wasp-sting vigour – “I ain’t a WIZARD BUT I WRESTLE LIKE HIM”. Diamond D himself later namechecks Paul Orndorff, just one of many of the record’s pro wrestling references.
Diamond D’s contributions also include I’ll Fight You (containing even more wrestling references), accompanying with a weirdo reed lineup that complements Mike’s melodic murmurs, which haunt through the hook – “it’ll be endless, I will fight you every day”. There’s also Crenshaw and Homeland, with little necessitation; OME raps about his multitiduinal pop culture interests, namechecking Talking Heads, 2 Chainz, Wu-Tang, Lupe Fiasco, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Stone Temple Pilots, and more, over an unmoving beat, less striking than the rest of the album.
Child Actor also contribute with three beats. Firstly, the duo surround Mike with splashes on The Song With the Secret Name, like an entranced, lost-in-thought state, utilised to mend the damage undertaken by Mike over previous albums. He raps “I’ma collect all my raps and sell ‘em again in a book / like that smart guy in the meme with the haircut”, and gives a shoutout to Popeye, potentially my favourite Quelle Chris song, but we’ll talk more about him in a moment.
Secondly, all is confessional and meditative amid the Hindustani tones of I Retired Then I Changed My Mind – “I’m getting too old / my first album title might’ve been too bold / I conjured up a gremlin, how do I get rid of you? / ‘what the fuck is art rap?’ in every damn interview”. Child Actor finally gift Peak Pandemic Raps – the album’s lockdown diary – a necessary lo-fi touch, complementing “unkempt beards and weird interactions” and the general feel of isolation.
Kites – one of my favourites of the album – contains a wistfulness in its beat, obtained by flutes, somehow both gentle and film score-dramatic. Kuest1’s production is a vulnerability in and of itself, the perfect provision for Still Rift’s verse, a faux-posthumous message to his survivors.
A number of cuts are loaded with appropriate features. Multi Game Arcade Cabinet, also including Still Rift, gazes out the window over Illingsworth’s delicate, wind-on-drape, production. R.A.P. Ferreira sparks the same disposition over his appearance, as if it’s easy, whilst making a Woody Guthrie reference. Reminiscent synths provide warmth and sentimentality, restarting on following track Credits Interlude, as Serengeti, hip hop’s modern unsung hero, takes a verse.
As mentioned, Quelle Chris is here too, and he injects a psyched-out, old-timey sample into the veins of 79th and Stony Island, as Mike half-smirks “I think the quick turns ruin us / I used to love Big Bird, then I saw his n-word supercut”. Chris balances his moods, spawning a half-industrial evil on Burner Account, perfect for the ensuing Armand Hammer feature.
Considering the album’s tribute to MF DOOM, the most fitting guest appearance emerges on Circuit City, that being Doom’s Madvillainy compadre Madlib. He crafts a beat as mighty and stacked as it is over-hazed in trippy psychedelia. Each emcee steps up with their own accompaniment; OME with a sticky array of moods, from lights-out daze to his own take on the mighty and the stacked; Video Dave with pummelling humour; Still Rift with a well-conditioned, bass-y mix of the two. One may also consider it fitting that the song ends up as one of the undeniable highlights of A Tape Called Component System with the Auto Reverse; many worship DOOM to the point of romanticism, and while the inclusion of Madlib may not surface or prompt reincarnation, it proves that the photo album garnered by past highs can still exist in new forms.
Best tracks – Circuit City – For DOOM – Kites – CD Only Bonus Track.
Weakest track – Crenshaw and Homeland.
Rating – 8 out of 10
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