Excellent Debut
Brian Seiler | Tomball, TX USA | 10/19/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Wow. I must say, I'm quite impressed with this album. I downloaded it from eMusic a few days ago not expecting much, but I resolved a while back that I'd support all the Hieroglyphics artists (at least until they prove themselves to be intolerable, a la Beeda Weeda) out of respect for the label. Suffice it to say that I'm pretty well blown away with what I got on this record. For a major-ish label debut, this is pretty impressive.
Now, don't get me wrong - this disc has its problems. The track arrangement is pretty lousy (all of the catchier/hookier numbers show up early and the album gets very mushy near the middle and could have used something to prick up the listener's ears around track 7 or 8) and the Casual collaboration on the bonus track sounds somewhat awkward at best, which is odd for him, since he tends to shine better on collaborations, but I digress. What I mean to say is that nobody should buy/download this record under the impression that it's the perfect hip hop album.
So what's good about it? Well, for starters, Knobody's flow is impressive and original, even as it sounds somewhat derivative of contemporaries like Kanye West (seriously - their cadence and tone of voice are pretty near to identical at some points). The record's production is solid, though, as I mentioned before, it could have used some more energy near the middle of the track list. The guest spots are well done. After listening to a track like "I'm Back", I'm not sure that I could have failed to enjoy the record as a whole.
As I said before, I'm very impressed. I've been somewhat critical of newcomers to the Hieroglyphics label, but this time, Casual seems to have happened upon a real talent, and I can't wait to see what he does with his next release. For any fan of underground hip hop, I can unconditionally recommend this record. Even for fans of mainstream hip hop, I suspect that you'll find something here to appreciate."
Track Listings (14) - Disc #1
