Statik Selektah is a name you associate with quality. You may not know the name but, trust me, you associate it with quality. To date, Statik has mixed a crazy number of mixtapes (or should I say a crazy number of ‘worth listening to’ mixtapes) and, before this effort, only two albums. Both albums were critically acclaimed, setting the bar for this one pretty high…

…and it starts off strong, the first track after the intro, So Close, So Far, is a conscious look at the state of life away from bottle-popping and throwing it in the bag. A smooth beat complimented by the talents of Bun B and Wale, while Colin Munroe’s vocals blend well with the sample. This is just one of the highs on a smooth laid back album.

I don’t know if there’s such a thing as easy-listening hip hop but THIS is it! Tracks like Drunken Nights and The Thrill Is Gone are silky instrumentals filled with the musings of the like of Reks, Styles P & Talib Kweli tackling subject matter accessible to the even the most remote hip hop lifestyle. While you can sit back and enjoy the personal reflections of Termanology or Consequence on Come Around or Life Is Short.

However, don’t be confused as to thinking this is track after track of pure hip hop gold. The downfall of this album is that for every Drunken Nights there’s almost always a Night People, a middle of the road track that never really gets you going, making them seem bland and uninteresting. It’s these tracks that let the album down when, in truth, a few wiser choices would have fans running screaming to the record stores.

At the end of the day though, the good does outweigh the bad (though it was almost a close one!) and Statik proves his worth as both a producer and a pioneer for the true form of hip hop, a mission that FlavourRadio knows he holds at the forefront of his mind.

1/2

Verdict: Sure to please Statik fans, and holds enough to keep Hip Hop Heads busy.

Favourite Track: So Close, So Far

Flavour Banger: Drunken Nights

Tags: 100 Proof: The Hangover, Bun B, Colin Munroe, Drunken Nights, Freeway, Reks, Showoff, Statik Selektah, Styles P, Talib Kweli, Termanology, The Thrill Is Gone, Wale

This entry was posted on Monday, March 8th, 2010 at 8:07 pm and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.