Album Notes

Mello-D & the Rados has released their fourth album entitled, Antitainment Vol. 2: Truth, Lies, Etc. Frontman Darnley "Mello-D" Hodge once again defies the conventions of main stream hip-hop both lyrically and musically. "This is the rawest most true to life album in Hip-Hop this year... and we gonna piss off a lot of people with this one too." he says.

From a lyrical standpoint Mello very candidly exposes himself on several songs. He takes the listener from laughter, to outrage and from apathy to concern. The CD starts off with a mid-ninties insprired intro by Jonny Black (aka Jonninfinit). Then in something of a musical tidalwave, Olugbenga (drums), Jesse (bass) and Sol (keys, vocals) lock the headnodding music bed while Mello-D smacks the listener in the forhead with vicious lyrical skills on Raw Hip-Hop. This happens just after trading verses with the legendary KRS-ONE on Still Cool Witchu, the follow-up track to Antitainment's hit song. Mello-D pulls no punches in criticizing bias in politics and media in the gritty, highly charged title track Truth Lies Etc and literally blows you away at the end of the song with a soulful tenor sax solo just before fading into Welcome to D.C., a roots rock reggae groove featuring a guest appearance from Akshan.

On I'm Saying Sorry, Sol Zahran croons a spine tingling chorus while Mello-D runs down the true though not so pretty details of two of his past relationships. After that, Mello-D takes you into the mind of a cyber sex feind on Potential Girl featuring V. Rich (Amel Larrieaux, Musiq). There are songs like Waiting on Nine where Mello-D humorously explains the importance of free cell phone minutes. And on the clever spoof Pimpin Hoes, Movin Weight and Pushing Packages Mello-D takes all the modern rap cliches and turns them upside down into something hilarious.

Mello-D says, "Antitainment Vol. 2 is a continuation of the previous album except we've taken it up a notch. Our mission has always been to make great music with a purpose. The purpose is to get the listener to see the world, the media and themselves in a different way while at the same time strectching the boundaries musically and creatively. We want you to take the lock off your brain and open your eyes. This is a movement. This is not entertainment. This is Antitainment."