When I’m not saving money to buy Lil B’s book or facing the scorn of my peers for listening to Third Eye Blind, I’m still keeping tabs on the diaspora of Hip Hop. Young Thug’s “Danny Glover” blares from frat houses, comedy skit parties and my basement apartment. Illmatic is almost as old as I am and J Dilla’s Donuts is getting the 33 1/3treatment. In the midst of the flurry of all that is new and good, I return to the essence like an amateur Taoist. I return to my formative days in high school, when I stumbled on the CunninLynguists’ A Piece of Strange, which is an A-1 example of how concepts can be converted into lyrical stories.
The third and most recent edition in CunninLynguists’ Strange Journey series built on the road trip themes of the previous two iterations. Kno, Deacon the Villain and Natti have traded their hooptie van for a Cadillac (Galactic Travel edition) and apparently QN5 sprung for the 21st century version of the Midnight Marauders Tour Guide. Throughout the record, a whole host of rappers get together over Kno‘s production, which is tied together with wraithlike vocal samples and simple melodies. Tell you what, Kno doesn’t get the respect he deserves. He has a unique style; a sort of joyful haunting that smacks of hope and doom in the span of four bars.
The early part of the album takes a little while to get going; I found that the momentum was really confused by the Miley 3000 voice. Zumbi of Zion I, Del the Funky Homosapien and Tunji represent the West Coast early and often, with “South California” standing out in the first 15 minutes of listening. I have mixed feelings about “Drunk Dial,” featuring MURS and Grieves, which is funny, but at times, a little contrived. The follow-up is “The Morning,” featuring a good verse from Psalm One and an ever-welcomed Blu feature.
The second half of the album is superb, rarely dipping below fourth gear and bringing out all the best of CunninLynguists. RA Scion of Common Market drops one of the best verses of the album on “Guide You Through the Shadows,” itself an album highlight. Included with the purchase of this album is a free hit of nostalgia, as the Deacon and Kno bring back former bandmate Mr. SOS and past collaborator cum legend-in-his-own-right Masta Ace for “The Format,” produced by RJD2. This is as much as a direct callback as possible as 2003′s Southernunderground featured the same personnel combining forces to create “The Seasons.” On the latter, the four rappers discuss the evolution of Hip Hop culture in terms of four seasons of the year, while the update to this formula focuses on the media storage practices and listening habits by means of which Hip Hop has been disseminated. Listening to these two songs in succession is one of the pinnacles of listening to the ‘Lynguists, showing that the group is as strong and ingenious as ever over a decade later.
The aforementioned 2014 song is placed well on the tracklist, as it signals the impending end of the album, a run of excellent production and thoughtful lyricism. The lone guest before the end of the album is professional thinking man’s rapper J-Live, although longtime friend of the band and label owner Tonedeff stops by on the epilogue. “Urutora Keiju” is future rap with a hint of Madlib‘s sound, and my God, every rapper brings the fucking heat on this one. Far and away, this is the best album closer in recent memory, and this is one of the best albums of the year.
CunninLynguists: Strange Journey Volume 3 [Album Review]
When I’m not saving money to buy Lil B’s book or facing the scorn of my peers for listening to Third Eye Blind, I’m still keeping tabs on the diaspora of Hip Hop. Young Thug’s “Danny Glover” blares from frat houses, comedy skit parties and my basement apartment. Illmatic is almost as old as I …
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Source: Kevin Nottingham
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