Friday night, Sweet Melissa’s: A small venue for three local groups. On stage stood two men; one tall and one short. One with short hair and the other with dreads that exceed his waist. Both holding microphones, tearing into yet another great verse; ”…We get crazy! Mic turned on the whole room is hazy!…” The crowd hosted a great variety of people — everything from a mom filled mosh pit to a cowboy square dancing in the back.
Based in Montpelier Vermont, Boomslang is made up of long time friends Johnny Morris and Dustin Byerly. They have helped to set the bar for the central VT rap scene in the past few years.
Boomslang was officially formed in 2006, but Johnny and Dustin were not new to the music scene. Johnny and Dustin met in 2003, when Dustin was searching for a producer.
“I was making music with my friend, in Plainfield,” Dustin says. “We had a tape recorder, a congo drum, and a notebook… [So] we began looking for a producer.”
They formed a group of about six people called Therapy. This band only lasted about two years and did not produce any recordings or perform live.
Dustin soon learned his friend’s yoga instructor’s boyfriend made hip hop beats, but no one knew his name.
“We just walked around Montpelier basically looking for all the yoga instructor flyers we could find, and we called every yoga instructor in Montpelier until one of them knew what we were talking about. That’s how I met Johnny, basically.”
They have continued to work together to make great music for over ten years.
Boomslang released their newest album, Attack the Vampire, on October 27, 2017.
“Knocking is my favorite track on the album for a couple reasons. For one, I love the multi-layered samples JL put together on this one. There’s just a lot of atmospheric elements added which gave the beat a of depth and texture. It captures the Boomslang aesthetic: dark and brooding but also high energy and packed with lyricism. This track really captured the dynamic between my (Sed Ones) rapid fire lyrics and JL’s more methodical deliberate approach.”
This is their second project, following their self titled album, Boomslang, released in 2014.
“The first five or six years were spent trying to find our sound,” Dustin says. “We didn’t really do any live shows. These last few years we’ve been really taking it seriously and taking it up to the next level.”
Although concerts naturally have a very high energy, Boomslang has managed to bring the same energy into their recordings.
“Being in studio is much different than live. When I’m live, I’m looking to establish a feedback loop. It’s very high energy. But all in all, in studio we try to replicate the high energy of our shows.”
You can see Boomslang perform several times a year in Vermont. For live updates follow their Facebook page here.
Below is the lyrics to the Boomslang song “Black Magic.”
Each verse is 16 bars total. One bar is a collection of four beats. In each bar there is a flow, rhyme scheme, and cadence set in place. Generally, this flow won’t change much through the song. I made a visual representation of the rhyme scheme in the first two bars of the first verse. The words or syllables with the same highlight rhyme with one another. You may notice that some syllables don’t rhyme perfectly, but still have the same color. For example, time and life. These are called near rhymes. They are a very commonly used tool in music.
(Verse 1)
Breathe in breathe out
No doubt you the one
Ring the alarm cause
The time has come
From the womb to the tomb
Boom moon to the sun
We live this life
Ride on a skeleton
Hella gone moving on
To another plane
I’m a see you in the future man
Where we rock all the
Ancient ways of crazy
Keeping it live Nobody can phase me
ghost swayze
Purple haze we
Demi Moore more
Then your average lazy
Mc don’t tempt me
To empty to empty
My mind ya might not
Get it back see
Full a sensi
Since I was youth
Eyes dilated
Looking for the truth
Here’s the proof
Check it in my style
Come on A how ya like me now?
(Chorus)
Hey yo Get Ill
We Will
Do That
Black Magic Rap
I Feel So Real
There Ain’t
No stopping that
Tonight
I might
Break through
Voodoo (to) attack
Take that
We’re at
The point Their ain’t
No turning back
(No, No, No, No)
There ain’t no turning back!
(No, No, No, No)
There ain’t no turning back!
(Verse 2)
Swords Clash in the air tonight
warfare in the pale moonlight
rebels in the dark
ready to strike
any enemy we see on site
I fight to the death
breathless I left this
but now I’m back attack I wreck this
reckless in battle
that’ll be your end
MC said one man I ain’t your friend
JL (8 bars)
(Chorus)
(Verse 3)
Creeping up like
children Of the
corn Word is born
I’m just warming up
Eruption dis-
Ruption production
Mammalian alien
abduction
Corruption at
the highest levels
The Devils
Running things
pulling strings
The trebles
turned down low
So the bass go bump
You can feel the vibration
in the trunk
I drunk liquid got lifted
And sifted
the finest
hard to find us we drifted
Off course
So we could find our way
Back to where we started
Now we ready to play
I say what need to be Sed
One rhyme at a time
Let em link up drink up I’m
Here tonight to
As you can see
Better get ready
Hold steady cause we
Analysis:
This verse doesn’t seem overly serious, and, layered with its dark instrumental, is the perfect representation of the Boomslang sound. There are plenty of spots where the lyrics seem to be pumping up the listener. “Breathe in breathe out, no doubt you the one! Ring the alarm cause the time has come!” This feeling is carried out with wordplay intertwined.
“Boom moon to the sun!” This is a double entendre. Boom is both referencing to the name of the group (Boomslang), and at the same time pumping up the listener, saying to go crazy and play the music loud all night.
“Where we rock all the ancient ways of crazy!” This bar references the primitive part of a person, directly in reference to music and partying.
“Ghost Swayze, purple haze we Demi Moore, more than your average lazy!” Ghost is a movie starring Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore. On top of that, Purple Haze is the name of a song by Jimi Hendrix and became the name of “Monterey Purple,” a type of LSD that was very famous in the 70’s.
“Eyes dilated, looking for the truth!” It is well known that LSD dilates your eyes, so this line is referencing back to the Purple Haze line. LSD is often used to kill one’s own ego, and most people explain it as “a journey.”
This song is geared towards partiers. It is high energy, has wordplay, and fits nicely into the Boomslang sound. If you would like to listen to the song (as well as the rest of their new album), follow the link below.
