Vast Aire has been described as avant-garde and eccentric. It's easy to get caught up in the tripped-out beats and unconventional staggered flow, but Vast is, in the truest sense, a blue-collar emcee delivering raw, unadulterated boom-bap.
Most noted for his work with Cannibal Ox, Vast has been steadily rising and honing his craft beyond fierce battle raps. Teaming up with DJ Mighty Mi of the High and Mighty for The Best Damn Shop is a simple recipe: beats heavy on the TV samples and lyrics capped with the witty wordplay (check "All you got to do is make me mad and I'll break loose/ Now I got the power of Zeus/ I'm Tupac on the roof/ I got the Juice" off "What Goes Up"). Mi dug up a sample from a Saturday Night Live skit with Will Ferrell and Anna Gasteyer that breaks down this project to its essence: "Test, test, we got a really hot mike up here fellas; somebody check the woofers."
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Chocolate Industries' Web site
Cannibal Ox on Definitive Jux's Web site
Prefix review: Vast Aire [Look Mom ... No Hands], by Rafael Martinez
