This is a fantastic album. It's intelligent, political, funny, inspirational, sexy, challenging, and engaging. Blackalicious ignores the trappings of mainstream commercial hip hop, and succeeds because they play by their own rules. This is hip hop at its finest, and if you miss it, you're missing something special.
(Kudos to EPFL for having this in their catalog. Whoever is choosing their music is doing an excellent job.)
Music:
The lyrics are good, the music is good, the performances are good... really, there's not much here that's not good.
Packaging:
(Altered by EPFL)The lyric book is included, and it's wonderful to finally be able to read the lyrics that I've only partially understood for the past few years. I also really like the fact that the lyric sheet lists each person along with his/her words. Like most CDs released on Anti, The Craft wasn't released in a jewel box, so everything but the booklet is missing.
Listen if you like: A Tribe Called Quest, Jurassic 5, Outkast, De La Soul, BDP, The Clash, Pete Seeger, any musician who gave enough of a damn about the world to write a protest song.
If it were food, it'd be: a Blackalicious Burger at the Soul Vegetarian in DC. No, they don't have it on their menu, but they really should.
3: just better than average; good for fans of the genre, and okay for everyone else
2: below average; listenable for fans of a genre, but only if there's nothing else to hear
1: poor, and whatever good qualities it has can't save it
0.5: no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
1 comment:
I think the thing I like the most about this album is that it makes the revolution a party rather than a burden.
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