Reviews of rap and hip-hop albums.
In the 2000s, deep within the California underground that had emerged in the wake of Project Blowed, in that extraordinary world known only to a happy few, Awol One was almost a star. And yet it is not easy to single out one undisputed masterpiece in his catalogue. Unless it is this album – more consistent than most – released relatively later in his career with Canadian beatmaker Factor.
The Holocaust is a Wu-Tang affiliate, while production duo Blue Sky Black Death hails from the deepest reaches of the hip-hop underground. Yet these three were destined to work together. The former’s grave, declamatory rapping – a wild cascade of references both pop-cultural and highbrow – is a perfect match for the ceremonial instrumentals crafted by the latter two.
With El-P, Cage finds a framework for his broken-man rap. The rapper who could have been Eminem instead of Eminem gets backing from some of the underground’s leading producers, tempering his provocations with confessions about his shattered childhood. “Hell’s Winter” is the most balanced album by a man who is anything but, and one of the finest releases on Def Jux.
It’s an album by a rapper, but not a rap album. On “Secret House Against The World”, Buck 65 finally pulls off the transformation we’ve heard about since he signed to Warner: his reinvention as a folk-rock singer. There are still a few raps, with scratches courtesy of D-Styles, but Gonzales and the musicians from Tortoise are also on board. And much of it is simply gorgeous.
The major-label debut from Buck 65, Halifax’s inventive rapper and beatmaker, hardly sounds like an album designed for mass appeal. It feels more like a mixtape. The Canadian strings together his best production sketches and rambles over them. His ambitions to reach a wider audience would come with the next album. But on “Square”, the music is already – or still – gorgeous.
After several years of activity around the Nuyorican Café and the Rap Meets Poetry movement, High Priest, Beans and M. Sayyid finally stretch out over a full-length album, accompanied by DJ E. Blaize’s electronic sounds and backed by a handful of underground hip-hop icons. True to their name, the Anti-Pop Consortium deliver a harsh, challenging brand of rap. But it’s absolutely brilliant.