New Quality Hip-Hop

(don't click there for more details, click link below)

Darc Mind - Visions of a Blur - Symptomatic Of A Greater Ill (Anticon 2006)


Oh No - T. Biggums feat. Dudley Perkins and Georgia Anne Muldrow - Exodus into Unheard Rhythms (Stones Throw 2006)


Dr. Who Dat? - Brazilliant Thought - Beat Journey (Lex 2006)



The more I've gotten into, the less of enjoyed new releases in the genre. But in the last few weeks I've come across a number of new quality rap albums and it has rekindled my hope that the best for hip-hop is yet to come. Here are three that a worth picking up.


Darc Mind – Symptomatic of a Greater Ill / Anticon

Slated for a ’97 release date, emcee Kevroc and DJ/producer GM Webb D aka X-Ray finally finished their 2-year in the making hip-hop opus that embraced the 15-year existence of NYC rap right down to the rawest snare clap as well as keeping a steady eye on the future of the game, insisting on pushing the genre forward. Already jaded by the business end of the music industry, the duo known as Darc Mind took a career ending blow as their label, Loud(/RCA) folded and Symptomatic of a Greater Ill would seemingly never see the light of day. Nearly 10 years later, avant-hop crew Anticon steps in and finally gives the album a chance to see the light of day. Falling somewhere between the near-perfect Illmatic and Cannibal Ox’s The Cold Vein, Symptomatic teams Kevroc’s feisty baritone and top-tier phrasing with X-Ray’s simple but effective production and snare-steady beats. You have to wonder if the album would have had any influence on late-90s rap, but as it is, it’s certainly an eye-opening artifact in the evolution of NYC rap.


Oh No – Exodus into Unheard Rhythms / Stones Throw

By now, most everyone is aware of Oxnard, CA’s most prominent musical family, the Jackson’s (and no, not those Jackson’s). Heavily influenced by their soul-singing father Otis Jackson and jazz trumpeting uncle, Jon Faddis, Otis and Michael Jackson, who are now much better known as Madlib and Oh No respectively, are two of the most innovative hip-hop producers to date. For his second full-length, the younger Oh No clears away some of the cluttered haziness that plagued his promising debut to focus down on exceptional sampling and production with heavy guest emcee use. Granted full access to heralded composer/arranger Galt MacDermot’s gigantic back-catalogue by the man himself, Oh No passed out 70+ beats to his favorite emcees and then whittled down the responses to the best 19 for the album. From veterans like De La Soul’s Posdnous and DITC’s AG to unheralded underground rappers like Wordsworth and Frank N Dank, ‘Exodus’ gives a wide-range of styles all held down by Oh No’s tight production. For just his second full-length, this is a phenomenal and heavily enjoyable rap album.


Dr. Who Dat? – Beat Journey / Lex

So Dilla and Madlib are the uncontested champions of the beat conducting circuits no doubt, but being seated on top of the boom-bap hierarchy means constantly fending off eager producers who want to uncrown the demigods and tend to cop their style and flip it all their own (just like they had to do when Premiere and Pete Rock ruled the land). Dr. Who Dat?, Lex’s next superstar producer in grooming (following in the steps of Dangermouse), may be the most promising beatsmith to emerge in the last few years and with time could someday climb Mt. Olympus of hip-hop. Influenced by his extended stays in Philly, NYC and Houston, Jneiro Jarel flips beats with creativity and gusto easily servicing the title of a poor man’s Dilla. His instrumental songs tend to derive from jazz and Brazilian samples while doing a good of job of not becoming redundant by trailing off at the 3-minute mark. An extremely promising producer, Jarel is already receiving praise from the likes of Q Tip, Spinna and more while working on some new Pharcyde tracks.