CD Reviews

Evidence | Cats & Dogs

Rhymesayers (2011)

By CHRIS FARAONE | September 20, 2011

4.0 Stars

As competent as Evidence has always been with mic skills, he's no lyrical miracle. In fact, he was the anomalous underground MC to escape the aughts without perpetually popping tongue-twisting linguistic feats at the expense of sense and substance. Evidence sometimes calls himself Mr. Slow Flow — a fitting moniker no doubt, but one that should perhaps be changed to Mr. I Think About My Raps Before I Breathe Them. Hip-hop substance is a long-gone phenomenon — both above and below ground — leaving this Dilated Peoples person as one of the few artists who curates albums that both massage primal rap receptors and elicit emotion. As in his titanic solo debut, The Weatherman, here Evidence juxtaposes focused collaborations like the operatic Alchemist-spun "Red Carpet" next to faster moving solo cuts like the DJ Premier zinger "You." All the while, on tracks like the coming-of-age nostalgia piece "I Don't Need Love," he dishes further tales about the path he rode from the beaches of Los Angeles to your headphones. That's the Evidence difference: unlike liars, fakers, and bullshit artists, he backs up his name and claim with anecdotal gems aplenty.

Classified | Hand Shakes and Middle Fingers
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Lil B | I'm Gay (I'm Happy)
Gone are the endless declarations of hoes on his dick in groups of 30 and 100; gone are the claims that he is everyone from Ellen Degeneres to Miley Cyrus.
The Cool Kids | When Fish Ride Bicycles
As you'd expect from the name, the Cool Kids have a fascination with social status and trends as well as with rebelling against them.
Main Attrakionz | 808s and Dark Grapes II
Following a steady stream of low-budget tracks, mixtapes, and videos posted on their Tumblr this year, the Bay-area stoner rap duo of Squadda B and MondreM.A.N. (a/k/a Main Attrakionz) have raised the stakes by offering up something that resembles a traditional release.
Das Racist | Relax
They still have jokes for days, but lyrical dexterity has taken precedence on their debut LP.
Fashawn | Boy Meets World
Since Boy Meets World dropped into my radar a month ago, I’ve discovered how much magic stretches clean across the tracklist, and I was planning to include it on my year-end list. Yet more immediate praise is due.
The Big Hurt: Billboard Top Hip-Hop and R and B songs
This week, a jolly traipse through one of Billboard 's most artistically fecund charts: "Top Hip-Hop and R&B Songs." What wonders await?
Fresh Vetz | Vet Status
It's a bright sign for hip-hop when at least three promising subterranean sluggers ride flows comparable to that of the almighty Nas.
Ivory and ebony
Hip-hop will never be post-racial. Pigment plays a major role at every level, and that's not always a bad thing.
Rapper Sam Adams now on tap
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Championship vinyl
You have a better chance of hearing Taylor Swift songs banging out of Kanye’s tinted windows than you do of hearing either of their pop asses on the Good Life speakers during Fever.
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