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| Talib Kweli- Quality:Talib Kweli�s highly anticipated solo album, Quality, delivers a fast and furious punch and gives the listener a well-worth-the-wait treat. With such songs like �Waiting for the DJ� feat. Bilal and �Put it in the air, Talib is sure to have the dance floors packed. But Talib spreads his lyrical wings and brings the listener along for the ride with such note-worthy joints as �The Proud� and �Guerrilla Monsoon Rap�. Talib also drops a little sentimentality on the listener with songs like �Won't You Stay� and �Good To You�. With such outstanding guest contributions by Mos Def, Pharoahe Monch, Black Thought (to name a few), Quality will have you feelin Talib like never before. 9.25 OUT OF 10 |
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| Roots- Phrenology: Beloved by both the critical intelligentsia and hardcore hip-hop fans, the Roots have made their mark straddling the worlds of rap and soul while being one of the few acts to mine beats and rhymes with the aid of live instrumentation. The three-year gap between 1999's studio effort THINGS FALL APART and 2002's PHRENOLOGY is ended with a platter's worth of hip-hop manna spiced up by guest appearances that lean more toward organic collaboration versus cynical marketing manipulation. Head MC Black Thought leads the charge as he manages to wax poetic about the drug problems of running buddy Malik B on the irresistibly funky "Water" (featuring riffs by guitar great James "Blood" Ulmer). Among the guests who meet this creative high water mark are Talib Kweli (the crisply delivered "Rolling With Heat"), Nelly Furtado (the sweet and sharp "Sacrifice"), and fellow Philly fanatic Jill Scott (the soulful "Complexity"). Lucky fans who pick up the limited edition version of PHRENOLOGY get treated to a bonus DVD featuring live footage of "The Ultimate" and "Double Trouble" taken from the MTV2 $2Bill Show. 7.75 OUT OF 10 |
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| Common- Electric Circus: When one thinks of progressive/"underground" hip-hop, few names spring to mind as quickly as that of Common, who remains at the vanguard of the sub-genre with his eclectic musical vision and visionary lyricism, never failing to simultaneously innovate and impress. Much is made of Common's crossover appeal to hip rock audiences, and it surely speaks volumes about him that he sounds just as comfortable dueting with Mary J. Blige as he does with Stereolab singer Laetitia Sadler, but that's only the tip of the iceberg. Common isn't cool because he drops the names of alt-rock saints like Kurt Cobain and records at the legendary Hendrix-associated Electric Ladyland studios. Rather, he's cool because his vision expands out beyond such simple stylistic designations as "rap," "rock," or "R&B." Throughout ELECTRIC CIRCUS, Common bears echoes of everyone from Prince to Marvin Gaye to the aforementioned guitar god (who gets his own homage on the freaky, psychedelicized experimentation of "Jimi Was a Rock Star"), but the important thing is that he melds it all into his own distinctive paradigm. 8 OUT OF 10 |