Chu
1000+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jun 22, 2001
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I've been browsing through this forum, and am amazed there hasn't been any discussion about this album at all. I go through quite a lot of music and even though I don't particularly enjoy hip-hop, but it's probably my favorite album of the year.
Saul Williams has had a long history as a beat and slam poet and is extremely highly regarded in those circles. He's had other ventures into hip-hop before supporting other artists but given his background most of his solo efforts have been closer to spoken word then anything. The songs themselves are from everything from race relations and perception (can you guess from the title) to the requisite love ballad, but he quite a different perspective then you usually get out of hip-hop and knows how to spin words into images better then almost any other hip-hop artist I've ever heard.
The background tracks are mainly done by Trent Renzor, who you all know for better or worse. He also lends his voice to several tracks but always in the background. It's sort of funny though, I had no idea about his involvement in this album until after listening to it, and kept going "you know, that white guy in the background sounds an awfully lot like trent . . . hrmmm . . ."
The combination is absolutely incredible and deserves at least one listen. The album is also completely free on his website, avaliable as 160 KBps MP3's. For $5 you can get the album in .flac or any bitrate you please with an amazing .pdf booklet.
Favorite Tracks (right now) : The Ritual, No One Ever Does, Skin of a Drum
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