Musical Arists of the Decade Part 2

Prefuse 73

Purely on a numerical basis, Guillermo Scott Herren just about wins this decade. As Prefuse 73 he put out five proper albums, of which one of which came bundled with a second unrelated album, plus two more "mini-albums" that for anyone else would be a proper-albums, plus two or threeEPs as well. That at least 8.5 albums there. Then as Savath and Savalas, he put out three more album (in addition to the one from '99) and a couple more EPs . Plus there's his Piano Overlord project that was compiled into another album (and there's another PO album that he mentioned in interviews but that never got released), plus there's the Diamond Watch Wristscollabo and the A Cloudy Mreya collabo and the Risil collective which has just released the first of three planned albums. So that's about 18 albums right there. And I'm not even counting theDelarosa and Asora album and EP that came out in 2000, which is fantastic. There have been stretches where literally every time I went to Soundgarden in Baltimore they'd have a new release by one of his monikers.

Granted, Herren is not the only musician who has been prolific this decade, Uncle Bob is going to share another Suitcase of tunes with the world and that's even after GBV broke up years ago, but prolific don't always mean good. There are certainly some mis-steps in the Prefuse chronology. The various MC collaborations on Surrounded by Silence should have elevated the album but it was the weakest of his career. The Interregnums album, which came with Preparation, was meant to be a more mature and orchestrated step forward but was far to long and slow to satisfy on repeat listens. Still between his many many albums, he has covered amazing ground from the cut and paste hip hop of his bestPrefuse releases (One Word Extinguisher, Vocal Studies, and even the new album which is a return to form) to the Spanish folk on Apropa't to the hazy semi-psychedelics with Diamond Watch Wrists. The only other producer in the same ball park right now is Madlib, who does have the bonus of being a decent MC, but I still give the edge to Guillermo aka Mr. Prefuse Overlord Savalas a Mineya.