Oakland, California emcee Lateef the Truthspeaker tapping in with Nick Andre for his official sophomore effort. A member of the Quannum Initiatives collective along with their subgroups Latyrx alongside Lateef & the Chief and The Mighty Underdogs, his first few solo mixtapes Forward of the Curve together with Reality is Love & Reality at Sea have been all first rate forward of his official 2011 solo debut FireWire surpassing them in high quality. 13 years later, he & Nick received extra of an Experimental Slap for the underground.
“Present Love” is that this sample-driven entice opener demanding his flowers contemplating that he’s been within the recreation for 3 a long time already whereas “Tic Tac Toe” taking a a lot calmer route instrumentally relying heavy on drums speaking about holding his personal. After the primary of three “Slap” skits, “Issues By no means Seen Earlier than” psychedelically reminds everybody that he’s the coldest with the pen whereas the bassy “Watch What You Say” that includes Phesto from the Hieroglyphics subgroup Souls of Mischief places everybody of their place.
As for “California Sober”, now we have Lateef placing it down 7 instances for the battle on prime of a playfully enjoyable beat that Nick cooked up simply earlier than “Snake Chew” that includes the late Zion I frontman Baba Zumbi & Deuce Eclipse airs out each final particular person who occurred to show a blind eye to them. “Weapons 2” that includes Jumbo & nOOdy Oddy after one other “Slap” skit serves as a sequel to a 2018 joint selecting up proper the place the predecessor left off main into “Freed Up” that includes Baba Zumbi & Deuce Eclipse getting down to convert nonbelievers.
“Began Dreaming Once more” that includes Aima the Dreamer pairs each of them speaking about their latest desires of coinciding inside them beginning to really feel their pens whereas the crooning growth bap “Ready on My Time to Come” that includes the late Blackalicious frontman Present of Gab eerily expresses the self-awareness of his demise fairly probably coming quickly. After the ultimate “Slap” skit, “Not Asking” appears like a cool homage to considered one of my favourite teams A Tribe Known as Quest whereas “Final Evening” that includes Slug takes it again to the basement speaking about how ain’t no one tryna eat off your peace.
Latyrx will get along with Baba Zumbi, Informal of the Hieroglyphics crew, The Grouch of the Residing Legends & lastly Lil B the Based mostly God previously of The Pack for a sequel to “Life is Superior” exhibiting their gratitude relating to the best way life’s been treating them at this level in all of their careers & “Nearly as Blue” finishes Lateef’s long-awaited follow-up to FireWire with this heartfelt tribute to Baba Zumbi, who handed away in the summertime of 2021 following the 48 12 months anniversary of hip hop tradition’s formation.
Principally made throughout the pandemic, Experimental Slap was made throughout a time of nice change, turmoil & private revelation composed with enjoyable and love in addition to terror & tragedy. It’s emotional, clever & irreverent & whereas we’ve by no means actually been for the drama. And there may be the truth is some drama as a result of this album is a reflection of the time it was recorded. Private & political. Intense polarization & isolation, coupled with excessive communal connection & service. Humanity within the face of loss of life.
Rating: 9/10