Black Radio Recovered: The Remix EP

by Robert Glasper Experiment

Robert Glasper's Black Radio was one of the best albums to be released in 2012; a near-perfect blend of hip-hop, r&b, soul, and jazz.  To make the year even better, this short Remix EP arrived.

The six-track disc starts with 9th Wonder's remix of 'Afro Blue', the Erykah Badu-driven song.  This new version has a little more snare to it, and a great verse by Phonte.

Pete Rock remixes Yasiin Bey's track 'Black Radio'.  This feels very close to the original, just a little more driving.

The always fantastic Georgia Anne Muldrow remixes 'The Consequences of Jealousy', the Meshell Ndegeocello song from the original album.  Personally, I would have liked to hear Muldrow on this song vocally, as well as behind the boards, but what can you do?  ?uestlove brings the Roots into the project for his remix of 'Twice', which also features Solange Knowles.

Glasper himself remixes Bilal's lovely 'Letter to Hermione', working with Jewels (whoever that is).  This track includes a verse by Black Milk, who would have been an interesting choice to remix the amazing Lupe Fiasco track on the original album.

To round out this EP, and worth the cost of the disc on its own, is Dillalude #2, a nine-minute medley of some Dilla hits like MC^2 and 'The Light', played by Glasper's band, complete with the slightly annoying vocoder effects he seems to like so much.

This EP is a great way to revisit some wonderful music, and see it in a new light.

Revolutions Per Minute

by Reflection Eternal (Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek)

The first Reflection Eternal album, Train of Thought, is what brought me back into hip-hop.  I had abandoned it for electronic music, which was staring to bore me.  When I picked that album up, it brought with it a new understanding of the genre, and I became a dedicated fan.  Over the years, I've followed both Kweli and Hi-Tek's careers, maintaining a strong interest in the work of the former, and gradually losing interest in the latter, as he became ever more commercial and tied to artists I couldn't stand.

When I heard the two were getting back together for a new project, my expectations were kind of low.  Lightning rarely strikes twice, and I felt that the two artists had grown apart musically.  I was glad to be proven wrong.  This album is worthy of repeated listens, and hile some parts are a little too commercial or mainstream radio-friendly for me, there are sections of the album that recapture some of the feeling of optimism and joy I got off the original.

From a typically unnecessary opening (why do we still need to do non-musical intros in 2010?), Kweli moves into some very lyrically strong numbers, with minimalist beats.  This vibe doesn't last though, as with the fourth track, things get very bouncy (with loud horns), and Bun B joins him for a song that feels a little too dated to me.  In places, Kweli and Hi-Tek stray from their usual sound, such as on 'Midnight Hour', which would have fit quite nicely on the Aceyalone & The Lonely Ones project.

The high point of the album is the eleventh track, 'Ballad of the Black Gold', wherein Kweli rails against the oil companies, both at home and abroad.  It's nice to see him invoking the name of Ken Saro-Wiwa, as he educates people the way hip-hop should.  I find it ironic that this was released before the recent BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and now the song needs another verse.  From there, we move into 'Just Begun', which features Jay Electronica, Mos Def, and J. Cole.  This is easily the second best track on the album, as these artists work so well together.

On 'In The Red', Kwe talks about the financial difficulties of former pop stars, and the capriciousness of the industry.  'Lifting Off' has him talking about his experiences with drugs, which I actually found to be more honest and perhaps inappropriate than I'm used to from this artist.

The rest of the album is decent enough, but given too easily into looking for club or radio play.  I have no problem with artists seeking that type of exposure, it just doesn't do much for me.  In all though, this is a very decent album.

The Ecstatic

by Mos Def

This is one of those strange classic albums, where during the first play or two, it sounds good; after a few more plays, it starts to sound better, but at the same time, a little innocuous; and then, you leave it in your car for a while, forget it exists, re-discover it, and get blown away by how many songs on it are ipod-worthy.

Having just rediscovered The Ecstatic, I can say it's an incredible album. Playing it again tonight after a few months absence, I am totally surprised by how many tracks I greeted by thinking, 'oh yah, I love this song'.

I had just about given up on Mos after True Magic, but with this disk, he displays his supremacy in the world of popular-yet-still-good hip-hop. The album opens with 'Supermagic', over Oh No's 'Heavy' beat, which is an oldie-but-goodie, and then shifts, after a standard Neptunes-y track (by 1/2 of the Neptunes), to 'Auditorium', one of Madlib's better beats off the Beat Konducta in India album. (I remember wondering if maybe Mos went by a yard sale at Stones Throw). This song, featuring Slick Rick, is an interesting item; Mos goes as hard as he ever has, while Rick raps this odd bit about being a soldier in Iraq. It's pretty dissonant, but cool none the less.

It's nice to see Mos return to a more hip-hop oriented album. He's always been an impressive lyricist, and he fills this album with a nice blend of producers, from underground stars like Madlib and Oh No, an up-and-comer like Georgia Anne Muldrow, and his usual collaborator Preservation. There's the requisite J. Dilla track, 'History', featuring Talib Kweli, that makes me wish there could have been a Black Star/Dilla album. It's probably my favourite track on here.

My complaints: there's a lengthy and annoying skit about airplane hijacking that just irritates me, and the album liner notes don't credit the song's producers. It's not all about you Mos...