The Black Lips' version of "The Drop I Hold" that features GZA isn't much more than the original with a spliced in verse from GZA. Instrumentally, the song remains the same. I saw the Black Lips live a few weeks back at the El Rey in Los Angeles and left emphatic about the band and the movement they seem to be generating. The Black Lips create a live show that is basement punk meets psychedelic East Village loft (with projected air bubbled celluloid, that begs to ask which Punk drank the Electric Kool-Aid?). So my love for the Black Lips will not be skewed by this track. Cole Alexander's rhyme scheme in the original version was understandable as it related to the original dingy echo. However, when followed by an actual rapper, it takes Alexander's flow out of its original context and into a hip hop realm. When existing in that world Alexander's lyrics become blase (near amateur, which is not how I originally felt). Now, the Black Lips and GZA probably weren't intending to make a rap song out of a lo-fi, twangy garage rock song, but, in the end the two hues fail to mix properly. "The Drop I Hold" is better listened to as a form of improvised rock, than hip hop infused lo-fi.
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