Album Review: Tope, Broke Boy Syndrome

[RAP CONVO] Tope is Portland's rapper-next-door. He isn't an abstract word-scrambler, political activist or LARPing gangsta but the guy you fall into conversation with on MAX or in the coffee shop. That rare personableness has helped make Tope the city's most visible MC, and with each release, the image of the skinny kid born Anthony Anderson comes more into focus. Broke Boy Syndrome, his third full-length, is grounded in a familiar hip-hop narrative, of how growing up with nothing shaped him and sharpened his grind. But Tope fills it with enough personal details to make the theme resonate anew. "I remember when my mama got them lights cut off/And the church came through with that food in the box," he recalls over the title track's splashy cymbals and organ. An unabashed nostalgist, Tope throws his reedy flow over the “Funky Drummer” break,  samples Biggie's "more money, more problems" interview and, on the inspirational "UCouldDo," borrows a line from Nas, declaring, "The world is yours." But those reference aren't meant as clickbait for '90s babies. They're the building blocks of his life, a story he's telling one album at a time. 

SEE IT: Tope plays Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St., with Illmaculate, Thaddeus David, Blossom and Verbz, on Wednesday, Jan. 14. 8:30 pm. $7. 21+. 

WWeek 2015