South Shore rapper/ producer PINK NAVEL takes a sample heavy experimental approach to hip hop, and it works like a charm. He came out and played one of the Hassle’s park shows this summer and just captivated everyone who was there, making the whole city park, traffic on 3 sides, seem very intimate.

He has a number of releases out under his current moniker, and more under his previous handle, RUNNING LAPS. PINK NAVEL TWO: THE ALIEN POSSESSION SURVIVOR BENEFIT TELETHON AND CLIP SHOW is PINK NAVEL’s second most recent effort, but just came out in July. The album is a collection of lazily delivered rhymes, simple but hypnotic synth lines, and samples both chopped up and allowed to stretch out, both familiar and obscuro. From time to time things get rather cosmic, calling to mind in a very loose way the awesome work of local/ not local hip hop legend EDAN.

This is not aggressive hip hop. PINK NAVEL has replaced the aggression often found in hip hop with curiosity. Oprah!? 22 tracks, mostly all PINK NAVEL, but with some guest producers and rappers thrown in. I’ve listened to the whole proceedings a number of times and it works pretty strongly as a whole, which is extra impressive because between beginning and end, it’s all over the place.

“underdaisey” features a great snare sound, some off kilter synth, and some really great rapping. “Black Rockstar (Pink Navel Reprise)” has those cheapo keyboard beats, perfect, then the affected vocals come in doubling the clean ones, rapping away into the sunset. “Drainage, Drain it” is one of the tracks not produced by PINK NAVEL. Here it’s ITS OBSERVABLE POWERFUL with the beats, and they are bummer fabulous and noisy at times. NAVEL’s voice is completely submerged in effects here, and the whole aesthetic is a weird one that really works for me personally.

“sworntotheart (and my heart)” may even be my favorite. Love those synths, and it’s got the album’s best chorus. PINK NAVEL everyone.