Albums

Contrary to what his experimentalist posture suggests, Thavius Beck's music has sometimes been too easy. The ex producer of Global Phlowtations, one of its few members who met some kind of critical recognition in the 2000's, thanks to his releases with Mush Records, Plug Research and Big Dada, sometimes spoiled his music with too many effects and pyrotechnics, and with some big, threatening electronic sounds, sounding like an exaggeratedly gothic version of hip-hop. Many times, though, the individual proved that he was really gifted and talented.

Making one's best so that hip-hop looks like a live experience, strengthening raps with the sounds of "real" instruments, has not always been a successful approach. The most famous group which tried to go this way, The Roots, has sometimes failed at it, coming dangerously close to boredom. And when a rapper proves to be good at this, it is more often in concerts than on records. Toolshed, though, a group from London, Ontario, used this formula fantastically on their second album, a record blended with bouncing guitar, drums, bass and saxophone sounds, reinforced with facetious and dynamic raps, and full of rhythm and scratches.

When one seeks to determine which album from Mike Ladd is the best, Welcome to the Afterfuture is often mentioned, or the Infesticons' Gun Hill Road. Both records seem bolder than the very first from this university teacher turned rapper and producer, an active member of the Nuyorican Poets Café scene. They look more diverse, and even catchier. Compared to them, Easy Listening 4 Armageddon sounds too soft, sounding like ambient music, or quiet jazz, or even easy listening. This record, however, may have passed better the test of time.

Though all Living Legends records have not always been flawless, the solo career of Eligh was, for a long time, nothing less than exemplary. Starting in the second half of the 1990's with good albums like As They Pass and Gas Dream, it reached its apex in the 2000's with some gems, first Poltergeist, and then the much original Enigma. After this peak, however, the rapper and beatmaker didn't provide anything substantial for us to enjoy. The reason, as we would learn in 2010 with the Grey Crow album, was due to a serious drug addiction.

With such an alias, this one laid clearly his cards on the table. Arthur Arellanes III's music, indeed, was both bizarre and arty. Once a spoken word artist belonging to the California's underground hip-hop scene – the guy played sets with Blackalicious - Bizzart explored further the nerdy, crossover, intimate and experimental kind of rap launched by Anticon around the year 2000. He did even better, proposing one of the most accomplished products of the genre.

Released in 2004 by two KutMasta Kurt protégés – his name was in the title, but he took not part to the record – this album had not been well received by the critics. They reproached almost everything to Dopestyle 1231. They said that it was not funky or melodic enough, that the duo was some Johnny-come-lately, delivering ten years too late its science-fiction inspired underground rap. What some despised in this record, though, was precisely what made it delectable.