103. Armand Hammer - Race Music (2013)
This is conscious hip hop at its best imo. Billy Woods and Elucid are the emcees and a host of producers are on this album, many of whom were on Billy Woods' "History Will Absolve Me". The album starts off with a grimy, chaotic beat in "Hatchet Job", then it goes to more jazzy areas on tracks like "Cloisters". The lyricism on this album is fantastic, and it has me returning to it quite often. Billy Woods has a free-association element to his rhymes that drop references upon references, taking them somewhat out of context to mesh with his dark sense of humour at points. Elucid is a bit more abstract in his delivery and a bit harder to get into for me at first, but quite rewarding when I listened more closely. There's a lot of variety on this album and it's a long one at that, clocking in at over 70 minutes. The subject matter on this album is very heavy on some tracks like "Where the Wild Things Are", which strikes some powerful chords. Well worth a listen for anyone remotely into hip hop, but it's not as easy to get into Billy Woods' "Dour Candy" or "History Will Absolve Me".
09-05-2014, 07:15 PM
Hybrid Mode