CD Reviews

Hi-Fidel and DJ Crucial

In the Company of Wolves | F5

By BEN WESTHOFF | January 22, 2008

3.0 Stars

This second release from Hi-Fidel and DJ Crucial is populated by pessimistic characters. “Who could have done this to me?”, Fidel sings/raps on “Jimmy,” over slow jazz piano. “I know I fucked up plenty, and not like that crackhead fucker that knocked up Wendy, or that crazy president who killed them babies.” But the LA-via-Chicago MC also can make you laugh, as on “Manther,” about a “half-man, half-panther,” and smile, as on “Small Victories,” in which he offers: “Can’t depend on friends to save the day, call me victor like RCA, champion in this struggle till I’m DOA.” Featuring underground-rap luminaries from the Midwest and West Coast including Pigeon John, Serengeti, and Black Spade, and benefitting from Crucial’s even, inspired production, In the Company of Wolves is world-weary art rap of the best kind, urging that if we’re all going down, let’s at least go down swinging.

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