Product Details
- Audio CD (April 6, 2004)
- Number of Discs: 1
- Label: Capitol
- ASIN: B0001ENYOE
- In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
By : Dilated Peoples|Format:Audio CD
Price : $12.99
Neighborhood Watch
Client Reviews
After a 3 year hiatus, Evidence, Iriscience, and Babu bring us their third album, Neighborhood Watch. Immediately after avoiding the sophomore slump with their good 2001 album, Expansion Team, Dilated was looking to deliver a classic with this 1, but falls brief primarily due to Evidence's considerably-criticized system of delivery.
Lyrically, Ev has just about taken a step back, and his monotone flow sounds as boring as ever, especially on his self-created "Really like War". He shows spurts of power on higher-tempo tracks like "Who's Who", but doesn't hold a candle to his partner in rhyme, Rakaa Iriscience.
Rakaa is severely slept on as an emcee, quite possibly due to Evidence's lack of charisma on the mic. When he goes for delf, such as on the politically-charged "Significant Company", it really is obvious that he's stepped up his game:
"But I fight for peace, that is what the trouble is
War is massive biz, ask an economist
They speak in volumes, just
Callin' anti-war and anti-American synonomous
Back in the day I'd have gotten blacklisted just for speaking up
Hoover most likely would've screamed 'Communist!'"
Production-wise, Dilated's friendship with the Alchemist does not hurt Neighborhood Watch at all, as he gives them heat with tracks like "Marathon", "Poisonous", and "World on Wheels". Evidence's beats are still best-notch with tracks like the aforementioned "Enjoy War", and Babu is also fine-tuning his abilities behind the boards, lacing the Dilated-Likwit posse cut "Closed Session" and his remake of "DJ Premier In Deep Concentration", cleverly titled "DJ Babu In Deep Concentration". Everyone's favorite college dropout, Kanye West, drops in to create and guest on "This Way", which tries way too difficult to recreate the really feel of Talib Kweli's "Get By", but nonetheless sounds fine. The only dud is Evidence's solo track, the boring, ironically named "Caffeine", which production-wise does not hit with the identical force that the rest of the album does.
Neighborhood Watch is one particular of the most beneficial hip-hop albums of 2004 so far, but it really is not the step up from Expansion Team that it should have been.
Dialated People's excellent general has dropped a bit, mainly cause of Evidence's flow, and specific production on some songs. But it is nonetheless a quite superior album. Irascience is still a mad lyrical genius, but overall on this album you can tell they branched out they're style a bit to appeal to alot more mainstream listeners. They're not specifically attempting to sell out, despite the fact that it looked like it with Kanye West on a track. Even so, the song with Kanye West is a single of the finest on the album, same with Enjoy and War, Marathon, and Posionous. Even so, they are nevertheless a fresh group with a a lot improved message than most mainstream rappers, which offers them the identical method towards their carrers as Kanye West and the Roots.
In otherwords, a superior album, not their preferred, but Dialated will nonetheless be around for a while.
Related Product
No comments:
Post a Comment