Saturday, April 18, 2009

Reflection Eternal II

In 2000, Talib Kweli & Hi-tek dropped possibly the best hip-hop album of all time (haters welcome to drop a line, but we are right), which I bought for about $50 in Japan the day that it dropped. That album is worth about, say, $300 to me now, or at least I would give up that much if my life depended on it for a final hard copy.

Despite every track on that album being a real gem, Kweli's solo career for years after that was a surprising exercise in mediocrity, while Hi-Tek, after signing with Dr Dre, lost his delicate touch on the boards. In layman's terms, they both became never bad, but never great.

That said, there is a new Reflection Eternal album finished and ready for pressing, outcome TBD. Keep your fingers crossed for the magic to still be there two diverged careers later.

REFLECTION ETERNAL - BACK AGAIN

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Thanks for posting this track Dukes. I heard this live at the Blue Note and have been waiting until it got an official release.

Totally agree with you regarding Kweli + Hi-Tek. The one thing I will say about Kweli is that his skills as a lyricist have improved since RE. Though his albums were not as focused as RE, his rhymes and flow are significantly more unique and fresh than back in 2000. But I think with RE, his lyrics were more intentful and focused on a topic compared to his solo joints.

DJ Yamin said...

thanks. i think your assesment of their careers is spot on.

Anonymous said...

i agree with you, it's definitely one of the best albums ever

great blog, loved it

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