BAR EXAM: 'L O W B L O W' by indie tribe

First-Listen Review

I guess you can say that I’m back? I didn’t really go anywhere but it truly has been a long minute since I did a first-listen review of a project. I’m stoked to be able to share with you my thoughts on indie tribe’s newest album, L O W B L O W. Let’s get to it. 

The cover art features the quintessential horse that commonly is equated with indie tribe. The horse is looking at the camera with a perplexed look. Standing in a barren land, the horse and everything around it is colored in pink hue. At first glance, it’s quite a confusing cover (besides the horse, of course). What does “low blow” mean? I guess I need to hit play and find out. 

For those of you unfamiliar with my Bar Exams, I am sharing all of my notes from my true first listen to the project. I provide in-depth thoughts and commentary on anything from flows, rhymes, beats, creative direction, track placement, and concepts.

After taking these things into consideration, I rate the project on a three-point scale. “Below the Bar” is something that needs help and doesn’t keep my attention throughout. “At the Bar” is the middle of the line and just okay, not really moving the needle any certain way. “Above the Bar” is something that sets a new precedent for the artist and is a tremendous accomplishment altogether.

Track 1, “40 Days,” begins with a soul sample, including a melodic bass line. DJ Mykael V is the first voice we hear. “Welcome back!” he says with confidence. After the horses rush past, the song starts. “Say a prayer for me and mine, I got a need to climb / Come and see my daily conversation with the divine…” That’s a hot line to kick things off with! Jon Keith pontificates over some swirling organs. No beat yet. 

“How you got eternal life and still feel like dying?”

The beat totally switches up, boom bap vibe with an “All Eyes On Me” bass type swing. The presumed star of the show, nobigdyl., grabs the mic. dyl. picks up thematically where Jon left off: vulnerable about his insecurities and pressures at work around him and inside of him. 

“Good sailors ain’t made with calm seas…”

Mogli cleans up the song. I’m curious about this agnostic Christian bar he just dropped. I once heard it said that if you deconstruct without constructing something afterwards, you have only destroyed. Mogli finishes up saying how he’s a “Padawan of Yeshua” and he’s “constructed his life on Jesus Christ.”

Track 2 is entitled “Act.” A little chaos to transition from the previous tune, but when the dust settles Jon Keith leads off once more. “Baby I’m fresh, living water flowing.” It’s a poppy beat and I can’t help but nod my head. The strings in the background are reminiscent of “Lean Back,” and the gang vocals are spot-on to really enhance the punchlines. This is a banger. That OG/Dozing/Show Me rhyme scheme Jon dropped was fantastic. nobigdyl. takes verse two and picks up the pace. “This yo favorite indie film, you know we ain’t need no label.” dyl. and Mogli are splitting this verse. I dig Mogli’s final line—shout out to Zildjian crash cymbals. 

“Don’t Shoot the Messenger” sounds like Courtland Urbano got ahold of it here at the top. Once the verse begins, some distortion and a nasty synth bass rumbles my headphones. nobigdyl. starts out, and before I could catch up with what he’s talking about, he’s done. Jon Keith has a hot line about how people worship dead presidents. Beat has changed slightly. I love how Jon knows that a beat like this calls for him to dig in with his voice a little. He left bread to eat beats. He ain’t lying. dyl. is back. Makes me wonder if that first bit was like a hook, but there was nothing between him and Jon just now. 

“Friend turned to foe, man that’s feeling like a low blow.”

Mogli is really back to rapping so far. I might miss this Mogli a little bit. “Tell Klyde I don’t know where my chain went…” Mogli really painting a picture with his words, also a bunch of nods to CHH culture in this one—the line about how this is a “bottle of henny at the Grammys type beat” is hilarious to me. But that Pangea line may have been a little forced. It’s okay, Mogli, I forgive you.

Track 4 starts out with dyl. alerting Mykael that Jon is recording now. 

“Lately I ain’t been on no island / Baby now you know where to find me / Crazy how it’s all in God’s timing / They hate me but I’m still going diamond.”

I think that last line throws back to my favorite track from U P P E R H A N D, “24K.” Oooh I dig the chorus being twice as long as I thought. The chant with the gang vocals really elevates the song emotionally, and we haven’t even heard a verse yet. Jon Keith really likes to bat leadoff. I mean, he’s really leveled up this year and people are hungry for his magnetic personality in their speakers, so I get it. After we get through this dope hook once more, Mogli raps about checking for fruit, going through hell, and finding redemption. I love how he’s talked about his wife on here so far. I always find Mogli to be relatable. nobigdyl. takes last verse this time. His words flow off his lips so smoothly. He’s pretty rapid-fire, but you can hear every word. This song is dope. 

Sounds like a radio host or someone fluffing up indie tribe at the top of “Casket.” Boom bap beat, and nobigdyl. gets off to a roaring start. 

“Got a King James and it came with a casket.”

dyl. switches up the flow so quickly I thought it was another person. OK, that first part was the hook. Hard to tell, but no sweat, I’m tracking now. Jon Keith goes second. “Putting rappers in the ground the only time I use my pen, right?” Sheesh. His ad-libs and BGV’s are on point here. A lot of energy and momentum on this song. Mogli’s best verse yet is this one. The vibe is really old school, but I contest that this is the new wave, and boom-bap is back. 

“Rich”—OK, I cheated and I listened to this single when it dropped. The confidence and charisma on the mic here is unprecedented. Jon is on another level. This hook is incredible. We’re rich because our treasure is stored up in heaven. 

“Couldn’t be hotter if I had Sodom in the back / If it didn’t come from the tribe then it’s prolly gon’ be whack / I know He proud of me / I mean I’m in the bottom of my bag.”

nobigdyl. isn’t pulling punches and keeps it rollin’. I really think this is the perfect song. The beat is tight, has a lot of room for the artists to perform over the top of it, and it grows with the swagged-out chorus. 

“Nate Rose got my stock going way up.”

There are so many quotables on this album already, and we’re just now halfway through. Track 7 is called “Below the Belt Freestyle.” “Mary had a little lamb and He’s the reason I’m the goat.” I think when Jon agreed to join indie tribe it was upon the condition that he must always rap the first verse. The beat changes to a little lo-fi sound with a whirring effect up high in the mix. Since it’s a freestyle there’s no hook. But, to be honest, some of their hooks have felt like verses up to this point, so it’s a good time for a break. 

“I put my ten thousand hours in / Heard twenty thousand no’s / But I came back from every one of them with forty thousand flows / To seven hundred thousand fans with just a handful of my bros” MOGLI IS REALLY IN HIS BAG HERE. Man, I feel like dyl. and Jon are really holding the bar so far, and Mogli knew what it would take to keep up. This dude rose to the challenge. nobigdyl. is on the last verse. I love the Family Guy reference as well as the “P” alliteration in the middle. Mykael has officially embraced his CHH DJ Khaled role and it’s beautiful. 

Track 8 is called “Plan,” and the beat is simple with a 3 Doors Down -type guitar riff over the top. Mogli comes in all chill with his verse. We’re 8 tracks in and this is the first time Mogli is really singing. It’s an alternative sound, giving our ears a break from the trap throughout the project. Seems like topically it’s about how we all plan our way, but God might have other stuff for us. That’s where we find ourselves being molded and crafted into being more like Him. nobigdyl. said something in his verse towards the beginning that reminded me of TobyMac’s song “Extreme Days,” which might have been the first song I heard someone talk about trying to climb to heaven. This song is ok. I can hear the need for it in the messaging and understand the placement in the sequence of the rest of the album. I feel like it changed the momentum of the project, though. 

“Cece”—OK, I think I’ve heard this one before, too. The harsh piano sample repeating, Jon drops the chorus at the top. Dexter’s Laboratory, Friends, and a few other references. dyl. takes the second verse and really shifts the texture. Jon was flowing fast over this when dyl. meets the beat with a pause-laden verse. There’s really not much happening with this beat, but the performances of the raps paired with the creative ad-libs in the background really do great work to support the song. They really know how to not let a song be too overly produced. 

Lots of cartoon references on this whole project. At the top of “Pepe Le Pew” we hear the voice of Mel Blanc from the iconic cartoon Pepe Le Pew. “I admire her mind too…” 

Upon the drop of the beat, I realize it’s an upright bass laying the foundation of the song. This is a nice touch, as it takes your brain and your ears to a completely different environment. When trap drums scream urban, an upright bass transports me to a concert hall. There’s a flute sample in the mix too. I love how all the layers work together. I think this song is about compromising, and it sounds like “Pepe Le Pew” is referring to the stench of sin and the temptation to fit in. nobigdyl. takes the first verse, talking about his upbringing and how he might have strayed a few times he ultimately found Christ. I really like the keys on this track paired with the clean guitar licks behind Jon’s verse. This is probably the best-constructed song on the album, with the most intentional and solid songwriting to boot. 

Just one slightly distorted guitar note on a loop can really sound like a smoke alarm. “What’s the Use” begins with a garage band sound. Not the application on your MacBook, but the band in your garage every Friday and Saturday night back in the day. Jon Keith’s vocals are cool. I think it’s rad how his voice is on a totally different frequency than Mogli’s but they work together perfectly here. The instrumental here belongs on the trailer for an action movie.

I definitely feel like the energy has died a bit these last few tracks. Not that everything absolutely needs to be amped up, but I feel like this album is top-heavy when it comes to bangers. Idk how I would sequence better, but I feel like I’ve hit a bit of a slump here.

On “Free,” Jon is singing and the vocals include some echoes back to himself, somewhat of a call and response here. Love the “Holy Smoke” shout out. Melodic flow at a mid tempo. Again, his ad-libs are just fire. nobigdyl. comes in with a chilled-out flow; halfway he picks it up, bringing his pitch up at least an octave and digging in. The beat stays mellow but constant. He’s going crazy! Laying out the Gospel story of what Jesus did for us so that we could be free. This is nice. Feels like a final track. 

Track 13 is a twelve second interlude, and then we get to “Tribal Council II,” which I would assume will be something that is part of every tribe album moving forward. Beat feels like a token cypher beat. dyl. is first up—“in Miami with Aklesso and some Socrates”—and hands it off to Mogli. An Epstein line, wow. Haha! Jon goes third. They’re done with their flows in about two minutes, and the beat changes. Is this 5 Fingers of Death?! Mogli starts the next beat with a few lines, then Jon picks it up: “’95 knows how to cook so I ain’t playing with my food.” This second beat is sick—again, the production has so much space and isn’t overly done. Shows the trust they have in their performances to really cut through. dyl. is last. “The live show Bobby Brown and I ain’t talking Millie.” 

To conclude, there’s a lot of meat to chew on here, but there’s also some straight-up fun songs. Every song is unique, and it’s awesome how these artists all complement each other. Their chemistry in the songs shows their camaraderie, and the relatable touch they can each add to their verses is fire. There are only a couple albums that can touch what indie tribe did with L O W B L O W this year. It’s definitely Above the Bar. 

This article originally appeared in Midnight Donuts #1. Want to read the most recent edition of Midnight Donuts? You can do so here!