Check this out, even if you're not a Hip-Hop Fan
Sor_Fingers | Boulder, CO USA | 11/28/2006
(4 out of 5 stars)
"I've never been a fan of hip-hop music. But that was before I discovered Dakah. I had always written off hip-hop because it was always too simple for me to enjoy. I couldn't stand the effect caused by one loop going over and over and over with some guy screaming at me over top the noise. Sometimes I thought the spoken word poetry was cool, but it never really grew on me much. It didn't ever really seem like music as much as it was culture.
Dakah has made hip-hop into music as well as a culture. They have integrated elements of jazz, hip-hop, world music and just about everything else to make the music even more interesting. All the music is live. There aren't sampled instruments or loops. It's real drumsets, real bass players, real strings, real brass the works. The group is 60 or 70 members large and the sound (even on a studio recording such as this one) is collossal. There are great arrangements with the horns and strings, and even a few improvised solos from the musicians. All with the energy and poetry that is hip-hop. I never thought I would use the words "sophisticated" and "hip-hop" in the same sentence, but Dakah makes that juxtaposition possible. This album is more than just some music, it's a full blown production and the effect is exhilarating. I would recommend this album to anyone looking for innovative music, whether they are into rap music or not."