Max Bell is an omnivore and typically eats live prey such as fish, mollusks, other crustaceans, worms, and some plant life.
The L.L. Bean catalog lacks diversity. Really, it’s near non-existent. It’s not as oppressive as a pallid racist lobbing hateful epithets at you before you’ve learned the words, but it’s a reminder of that oppression. Dr. Millionaire knows. The catalog probably landed on the doorstep of his small, ant-ridden apartment at least once. The Maine-bred rapper eventually relocated to Richmond, VA, but the wounds acquired during childhood hurt as much in hindsight. Maybe more.
“Nigga From Maine” is unflinching autobiography, a life examined, the lines drawn. Low self-esteem and empty pockets led to a brief tenure as class clown to an extensive list of drugs used, abused, and sold. Rap was the release and the reason. The man born Isaiah Clements emerged as Dr. Millionaire. Here, as he is on songs like “More Songs Than Pac,” he’s assured and brimming with promise. His voice cuts through the beat like a gust of northeast wind. His flow, though practiced, is fluid and easy. Produced by North Carolina native Conrizzle, the loop is lugubrious and bluesy; the collage of pained and soulful moans just that. There is no hook, only a repeated reminder of the genesis, the locale and the pigment.
Millonaire’s next project, My First Million, is due out on cassette this summer via Imaginary Friends. If the rest of the tape proves as cold as “Nigga From Maine,” you’ll need a fleece.
