Fortunato's The Grocer Album Review from Exclaim Magazine

Fortunato – The Grocer (independent)
By: Thomas Quinlan

Aurora rappers Conscious Thought and Fortunato have kept their group, Angerville, in the spotlight over that last year with two albums, a mixtape, and now the first of two solo records, all made available to download for free, and still more is soon to come. Fortunato's solo The Grocer opens with a funny vocal sample from The Office that evolves into a short instrumental track before “Get Up” kicks in with a hype piano-laced Derek4Real production that provides the energy and incentive to start the day out just right, like waking up to a strong shot of espresso first thing in the morning. A highlight of The Grocer, Fortunato introduces all of his themes for the album with this song, adapting a loose based theme of working a 9 to 5 and applying it to the daily grind of maintaining and succeeding in the world of hip hop, taking a few breaks here and there to brag, boast and dis emcees who are in it for the wrong reasons. Westnyle provides a guitar-heavy headbanger for “Working Man,” an Angerville tune that posits both Conscious Thought and Fortunato as “a 9 to 5 emcee walking on the street / working for the man while I'm writing to the beat.” Aside from a slow, plodding production from Freddie 5 Piece (“So Tired,” with a catchy slowed down vocal soul sample) and another production from Derek4Real (the string-heavy melodrama of “A Different Day), the rest of the album is produced by regular beat contributor Gam Shooter, who provides a lot of mellow creations to go mathttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifch the serious subject matter, with the soulful jazz of “Over Time” standing out. However, epic posse cut “15 Min. Break” is possibly the best track on the album, with emcees as diverse as Kdot, Gully Da Kid, Gee Wunder, Noah 23, Kawzee and more bitching about their day jobs during a conceptual coffee break and accompanied by a funky guitar riff and drum break. The Canadian hip hop scene needs more collaborations like this. And it definitely needs more artists like Angerville, a duo dedicated to taking chances and trying something a little new. Worth a download from Fortunato – The Grocer (independent)
By: Thomas Quinlan

Aurora rappers Conscious Thought and Fortunato have kept their group, Angerville, in the spotlight over that last year with two albums, a mixtape, and now the first of two solo records, all made available to download for free, and still more is soon to come. Fortunato's solo The Grocer opens with a funny vocal sample from The Office that evolves into a short instrumental track before “Get Up” kicks in with a hype piano-laced Derek4Real production that provides the energy and incentive to start the day out just right, like waking up to a strong shot of espresso first thing in the morning. A highlight of The Grocer, Fortunato introduces all of his themes for the album with this song, adapting a loose based theme of working a 9 to 5 and applying it to the daily grind of maintaining and succeeding in the world of hip hop, taking a few breaks here and there to brag, boast and dis emcees who are in it for the wrong reasons. Westnyle provides a guitar-heavy headbanger for “Working Man,” an Angerville tune that posits both Conscious Thought and Fortunato as “a 9 to 5 emcee walking on the street / working for the man while I'm writing to the beat.” Aside from a slow, plodding production from Freddie 5 Piece (“So Tired,” with a catchy slowed down vocal soul sample) and another production from Derek4Real (the string-heavy melodrama of “A Different Day), the rest of the album is produced by regular beat contributor Gam Shooter, who provides a lot of mellow creations to go match the serious subject matter, with the soulful jazz of “Over Time” standing out. However, epic posse cut “15 Min. Break” is possibly the best track on the album, with emcees as diverse as Kdot, Gully Da Kid, Gee Wunder, Noah 23, Kawzee and more bitching about their day jobs during a conceptual coffee break and accompanied by a funky guitar riff and drum break. The Canadian hip hop scene needs more collaborations like this. And it definitely needs more artists like Angerville, a duo dedicated to taking chances and trying something a little new. Worth a download from Here

For more on Fortunato check out Angerville's Myspace