Words By Contraâ„¢

“The greater the problem, the less likely one is to understand the solution.”-Mama Contra

I expressly refused to “review” this album because reviewing is almost formulaic: Give the highs, the lows, the pros, the cons, the overview and then justify the rating.

It’s like grading a paper.

Much as I understand that even art students get grades, great artists don’t get reviewed; they get discussed.

By no means am I saying that Blu and Taraach are the Leonardo Da Vinci and Raphael of Hip-Hop in ‘08. But if Hip-Hop has ever needed a Renaissance, a rebirth, this would be the time and these just may be the guys to do it.

When I first got Piece Talks a few months ago, I rushed to throw it on a CD and pop it in the whip as I made an intercity commute. After listening through it once, I couldn’t deal with it any longer. I popped it out and got quite angry.

I was meant to interview Blu & Raach later that week, so I made it a point to channel my rage so as to ask them “WTF” in the nicest of fashions when I did see them. But as LC pointed out, these are some hard dudes to get a hold of. Worse still, I had my own run-ins with Dekalb County Police for running a light or some shit. So that obviously fell through.

But by that point I was really looking forwarding to sitting down and having a chat with Blu (Raach didn’t make it to A3C) to congratulate him.

Yes, I was looking forward to it.

What had changed? I listened to the album again, later, in hopes of finding devious ways to craft double-edged questions and publicly butcher C.R.A.C (pronounced Crass) on TSS. But with each listen I grew increasingly fond of the album. Not so much because as a Hip-Hop album, it ‘goes hard’(or any other generic laurel given to 4-5 cig albums these days). I wouldn’t go so far as to say that.

I would, however, say that as soon one stops trying to put this album in a box, and releases it from conventional confines it becomes something greater than what it initially seemed to be.

It ceases to be experimental, and starts being creative and innovative. It stops being far-fetched and ironically becomes quite familiar. Blu’s cadence and Raach’s lyricism are scattered over the album quite evenly, as opposed to being heavily woven into the fabric and backbone of every track; which leaves you wondering what you should really be listening for or focusing on.

The answer, quite simply, is nothing. There’s seemingly no real intention, or driving theme in the album, unlike other work we’ve seen both of these artists on.

It’s a very conceptually organic and purposely different album. You don’t listen for Ta’Raach’s raw lyricism, you hear it somewhere on “Major Way”, “Hello” or “Respect”. You also experience his vast creativity and profound depth in the spoken word on “Cotton”.

Blu shines as usual on pretty much anything he is on, as usual. From “Love Don’t” to “Go” he excels. He gets more abstract on this project though, which seems to be a trend now, but still seems more in his element on tracks like “Respect” where he absolutely devastates the track. His storytelling comes alive in “Mr. Big Fizz” and “2-16-05″, as does his now signature playfulness.

By contemporary standards, this is quite certainly not the “best” album you will hear. But quite certainly, it is one of the more important albums out there right now. A surprisingly fresh, genre-breaking, unrestricted, unconventionally humorous, Hip-Hop album.

Now excuse me as I go smoke the 4 cigs I would have otherwise given the album.

Shoutouts to Blu and J.Kim for all cooperation.

www.myspace.com/herfavcolor

www.myspace.com/taraach

Previously Posted — “C.R.A.C. Holes, Cotton and Mr. Big Fizz” As Told To LC Weber | “…Respect Anna Check” – C.R.A.C. Knuckles Preview