Dele Fadele
Some tracks on ‘God’s Son’ do have an autobiographical slant to them, but mostly this is Nas going back to his former role as a keen street observer, ready to dispense wisdom to up-and-coming youngbloods.
3y
A glossy, well-produced album of populist anthems with a gangsta undertow, that expands his worldview and celebrates success.
12y
B-sides, by nature, seldom do a group justice, and are mostly treasured by devoted fans, archivists and unbalanced people, but there’s some quality here; a willingness to loosen up, and even throw away gems that should’ve been singles.
10y
Maybe, just maybe, Tupac Amaru Shakur will finally rest in peace when the cupboard is threadbare.
11y
To simply call D'Angelo's work neo-classic soul, as per corporate diktat, would be reductive, for that would be to ignore the elements of vaudeville jazz, Memphis horns, ragtime blues, funk and bass grooves, not to mention hip-hop, that slip out of every pore of these 13 haunted songs.
13y
Taking Timbaland's successful experiments as a blueprint, Rodney Jerkins and She'kspere pile on the jittery beats, refuse to scrimp on the keyboard spray-painting, and conduct the quartet's voices into a mutant black Andrew Sisters symphony.
8y
Erudite, literate and keenly aware of their surroundings, Philadelphia's The Roots have become an anomaly in hip-hop - even though they arguably stay truest to its original spirit.
11y
Pathos saves Neutral Milk Hotel from being a complete oddity.
11y
For his second album in 12 months, he chronicles a bleak world where the struggle for drug profits breeds senseless deaths, champagne and company the only consolations.
11y
With the aid of Organized Noise productions, The Goodie Mob offer a sample-free, collective hip-hop based on played and programmed instruments, that nods at funk and southern soul, yet ultimately exists as a backdrop for the four main raw and untutored voices.
3y
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