ive got the retial grouprip today. had a quick flick through all the tracks. seems to me like its not going to be so good, sounds to me like his voice isnt as loud as the instrumental beat.
the again i only skipped through each track once, listening to each for a few seconds. i hope im wrong and this is a crazy album.
It's not *bad* at all. The beats are very generic. Rakim at this stage in his career is better than a lot of other rappers, but he's not very interesting. I doubt I'll listen to it again, but I'll buy a ticket if he tours.
Maybe it's because I'm such a big Rakim fan, but I can't listen to this album. I'll be putting "Holy Are You" and "How to Emcee" on my playlist, but that is all.
Good news: he plans one doing a B-side with Premo, and he also wants to release another album next year that "gets back to the essence of hip-hop"