Dimitri Ehrlich
Some of the beats on In My Lifetime, Vol. 1 sound like a single loop left on autopilot, but Jay-Z makes up for simplistic backing tracks with a dense lyrical flow.
10y
The rhythms vary, but the sound is gentle yet flamboyant throughout. It brims with warmth.
10y
Humor disguises the grim subject matter while Nas’ eye for minutiae lends credibility and urgency to his hip-hop short stories.
10y
Ballbreaker is moronically retrogressive, but utterly enjoyable.
10y
After burnishing his vocal delivery to a haunting glow by playing on Manhattan’s Lower East Side punk-folk scene, this son of folksinger Tim Buckley now outstrips dad with a dreamy and stunningly original set of songs.
10y
Chief Boot Knocka has irrepressible, high-speed raps from the multiplatinum-selling Seattle mack Sir Mix-A-Lot.
10y
Dewdrops in the Garden, the third album by the house-music hippies Deee-Lite sports a couple of great bass lines and a new flirtation with ambient and techno vibes. But the eclecticism doesn’t preclude the sense that we’ve heard it all before.
10y
Aaliyah exudes street attitude a bit too self-consciously-nonetheless, a promising start.
10y
His witty lyrics and gruffly gratifying beats on Illmatic draw listeners into the borough’s lifestyle with poetic efficiency.
10y
One hundred percent gangsta-cliche free, Del’s idiosyncratic rhymes on No Need for Alarm are delivered in a deep-throated West Coast twang.
10y
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