It’s one thing when a dude is just generally slept on. I appreciate what Rawkus was trying to do – and overall, their imprint on hip hop is a positive one, but most of it is derivative by nature, through no fault of their own.ĭon’t get me started on B-1. The other tracks range from passable to “trying to hard to prove your roots.” When they are not, they are making music that is basically what a yonger rap fan who didn’t live through the golden era thinks authentic newer rap should sound like.Īstronomy, Thieves in the Night, Definition, Respiration, and Re-Definition are all dope. When these two are at their best, they are making really dope music. Overall, this album is overrated – but that’s because it’s “the golden” to a younger generation that never lived through any of the real golden age. While I was unable to return the Black Star album since I copped it via mail-order, I was able to ebay it for twice what I paid for it the following week and would never have to endure it ever again. It’s only because Kweli sounds so sloppy that Mos comes off as halfway decent by comparison on the majority of the tracks. The audacity to record that wack remake of Slick Rick‘s classic is never forgiven action, like writing “WAR” on Fat Albert. The only rappers who have a pass to sing from time to time are Biz Markie, Nas and Q-Tip. Yasiin Bey has a troubling tendency to launch into warbling at every opportunity, which I can’t support. Mos Def isn’t as great as he thinks he is. The majority of the production sounds like it was tailored for an afternoon of shopping at Bed, Bath and Beyond with the dame you met at the food co-op.Ħ. I appreciate that Black Star were making a conscious effort to bring some, erm, conscious rap back into the mix, but most songs wear the Backpack Rap insignia so proudly that even Joey Badass would be embarrassed to remake one of these songs. They had access to label mates Scaramanga, B-1 and Pharaohe Monch, but chose these three cornballs? They recruit Punch, Words and Jane Doe for the posse cut. Period production during his “I’m not sampling anymore” era, complains about beat-jacking despite the fact that two tracks earlier the crew rapped over a flip of BDP‘s “Remix For The P Is Free” beat and “borrow” several classic hooks.ģ. This typically whiny backpack protest song about the evils of Puff Daddy, set over an awful ‘live’ Shawn J. The whole “Children’s Story”/”Definition” hypocrisy. By the same token, fans don’t have to be happy about dropping cash on an album that they don’t enjoy.Ģ. As he explained in this Cuepoint piece, musicians don’t owe fans anything just because they’re bought a record. Even the more accomplished beats such as “Thieves In The Night” and “Respiration” are marred by his efforts. While he’s certainly improved his flow since, his “jam as many big words into every bar as possible so that it sounds like your stumbling around Whole Foods on a wheat grass shot bender” flow is absolute agony to endure. Let me break it down the issues I have with this record, one at a time:ĭude sounds like he’s reading his rhymes straight off his recycled paper notebook, granola bar crumbs and all. I was then subjected to what can only be described as the most disappointing album purchase since I copped the first Arabian Prince album.
After the records arrived in the mail and I threw on the Mos Def and Talib Kweli album, which certainly looked the business courtesy of Brent Rollins sharp artwork. I was all about Hydra Entertainment and Tru Criminal, personally, but I did have an unfortunate run-in with the horrendously overrated Black Star LP after a buddy of mine who worked in a record store recommended it to me while I was ordering second-hand Big Noyd singles. The Rawkus era, so fondly remembered by misty-eyed hip-hop forum regulars as some kind of third golden era, left me largely nonplussed at the time and with the steady passage of time passing us by, many of those records haven’t aged well at all.
0 kommentar(er)
