Black Spade - 'To Serve With Love'
Monday, July 14, 2008
Grade: A-
When I hear the now cliche term "hip-hop is dead" I can only laugh. It is my assessment that it is only the lazy, pseudo fans of this beautiful art that claim such nonsense.
Case in point: Black Spade, native to St. Louis, MO, who credits his influences to greats, Prince, J Dilla and Radiohead, has released an interesting / alluring mix of hip-hop, soul and attitude titled To Serve with Love.
Think Kanye West meets ATCQ and Dudley Perkins in Bobby Womack's garage. This cat is bad.
The beats are soulful, synth-laced, bass heavy and gritty. The joint 'As We', is a funky swing, airy track with humble but braggadocios self-proclamation of his intent as a dope emcee here to make his claim. The title track feels like a missing song from Slum Village's Fantastic Vol. 2 but it's clear Black Spade is no clone, vibing over the Dilla-esque production with singing melodies and a calm yet syllabic rhyme flow.
My personal favorite is 'She's The One (20's Love Song)', that has a old jazz love song sample and he delivers an intricate picture of "the one for me" with a style reminiscent of a young Q-Tip.
For fans of something new with a taste of that old school soulful flare, this is an album you will appreciate. And as I usually state, if you don't regularly listen to hip-hop, check out this album as it will give you a glimpse of this genre outside of it's mainstream representation.
Peep the video for the track "Evil Love":
Always,
- Arablak
Labels: AlbumReviews
posted by Arablak @ 11:28 AM,
