The Deal: DC rapper’s long awaited debut album, Attention Deficit, puts DMV in the hip-hop spotlight.

The Good: You get a little bit of everything. Wale manages to give people a taste of his home, DC, and heritage, Nigeria, with tracks like “Pretty Girls” featuring Gucci Mane and “My Sweetie.” An All-Star lineup of guest appearances with Pharrell, Lady Gaga, Rihanna (sampled), Bun B, Jazmine Sullivan, Chrisette Michelle. But the really stand out features came from the lesser known K’Naan on “TV in the Radio” and J. Cole and Melanie Fiona on “Beautiful Bliss.” “Mama Told Me” is the younger brother of Jay-Z’s “Mama I Made It.”

The Bad: Wale tries to be all things to all people and multiple times spits on the pressure of carrying the genre. Was anybody else aware he was anointed the next hip-hop leader? While the guest appearances are dope, they are all predictable. Why not get Gucci on a go-go beat or something else risky. The one that does break away from the featured artists’ usual is “Chillin” with Lady Gaga, and it leaves her sounding more M.I.A. “Paper Planes” than “Poker Her Face.”

The Verdict: Wale does an excellent job of capturing hip-hop’s attention span. Every track can’t be a party record or a single and most freshmen don’t get that. A dope first showing from someone we’ll be hearing from for a while.

INFO
Allido/Interscope; Release date: Nov. 10, 2009

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The Deal: West coast newcomer releases first big label album (Atlantic) and amazes in the process.

The Good: A lot. With Francis’ major label debut (after his independent release One-by-One), we are introduced to a big talent looking to make his mark on music. The album is full of power songs showcasing Francis’ many talents, none stronger than his deep, baritone voice. Francis takes a single event in his life – the ending of a long-term relationship – and creates a theme album that gets stronger with each track. No song sounds the same as the last and you’ll realize with each listen (and trust me, you’ll want to listen more than once) that the songs may sound melancholy and down to begin with, but over time a real hope begins to shine through. As Francis himself says, “Over time, the theme of the album becomes more apparent. Once you live with the album for awhile, the power comes through – the more you listen, the more you understand.” With songs like “Nightfall,” “Junebug” and “Darkness” you get the full range of Robert’s voice and of the raw emotion that makes the album special. With each song, the heart and soul of a man pours through and you can feel what he feels, and that’s a nice change from most music you hear today.

Sounds Like: A lot of really great, legendary artists. On one track, you’ll swear you are listening to early Dylan. The next, U2 circa the Joshua Tree. Later, Springsteen in his heyday. What does that mean? A great album with a unique sound and powerful tracks.

The Bad: Nuthin’. Rarely these days do you hear an album that delivers from beginning to end. This album does just that.

The Verdict: If you ever wanted the chance to say “I heard this guy way back when, before he made ‘it’,” this is your chance. I’ve written in this space before that good albums are a thing of the past. With Before Nightfall, Francis proves me wrong. So head over to iTunes and for the price of a couple fancy cups of coffee, treat yourself to an album worthy of your hard earned cash.

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The Deal: Underrated Pittsburgh-bred rapper drops one last mixtape before his sophomore album, Deal or No Deal, drops later this month.

The Good: Khalifa manages to add some flair to the textbook mixtape formula of spittin’ over familiar beats from other artists, by taking otherwise mundane joints like Beyonce’s “If I Were A Boy” and “Diva” which he turned into “If I Were A Lame” and “Young Khalifa.”

“Won’t Land,” a weed and good life anthem on the classic, “Luchini” beat and “Ode To Naked Pop Stars,” a funny “tribute” to chicks wildin’ on blog sites + TMZ over Drake “Best I Ever Had” with Khalifa saying, “like a nerd with no Macbook/look how purdy that cat looks” are both standout tracks. Even with the solid tracks from familiar sources, Khalifa deserves props for getting on more than just hip-hop joints that were in ridiculous radio rotation.

The Bad: A stoner’s rambling CAN be hilarious but many of Wiz’s blunt-induced talking points could have easily been left out. A few times he tried to move away from his natural to fit the beat but it didn’t always go well.

The Verdict: If mixtapes serve to work out the kinks, he did that. Some very bright spots mixed with forgettable flows. Worth a download but just like the blunt, it’ll only stay in rotation for so long.

INFO:
Wiz Khalifa
Burn After Rolling
Release Date: Nov. 2, 2009

Download Wiz Khalifa’s Burn After Rolling here

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The Deal: One of hip-hop’s most respected DJ’s releases a tribute mixtape as Michael Jackson hysteria rises again with the release of This Is It.

The Good: It’s Michael Jackson. The material Jazzy Jeff had to work with was pretty rock solid to begin with, couple that with great blends and mixes with artists like Pete Rock and Kriss Kross and you’ve got a winner. More Jackson 5 material than expected really shows how good they were. Love the fact that sounds weren’t just a chronological journey through the Jackson catalog. Mixing it up was a good thing. Quincy Jones talking about Michael was also a good look.

The Bad: More Jazzy Jeff definitely would have been welcomed. I understand it’s a tribute album and you’re taking the backseat, but there’s a big difference between a backseat and the car behind in traffic. At times, it’s just a Michael Jackson/Jackson 5 playlist.

The Verdict: A solid tribute to the King of Pop from a very hip-hop perspective, considering it was free for anyone who chose to download it, you can’t really beat that.

INFO:
UNDRCRWN Presents: DJ Jazzy Jeff
He’s The King, I’m The DJ
Release Date: October 26, 2009

Download “He’s The King, I’m The DJ here

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The Deal: Michigan-born former DJ trades his turntables in to re-create the R&B, soul and pop magic of Motown on A Strange Arrangement.

The Good: Behind Hawthorne playing all the instruments, the production is spot-on and eerily tows the line of classic reproduction and rip off. It’s amazing to think he only left DJ’n behind a year ago. The songs skillfully update a timeless sound with Hawthorne pushing his kind of “singing around the house” falsetto to its healthy place.

Putting the album up against current soul and R&B, there’s something great about undersexed but loving pop ballads.

The Bad: While Hawthorne has the production side down, no one is going to confuse him with Smokey Robinson. His voice, while earnest enough, comes off more Glee than R&B. The timing of the album’s release is a bit awkward considering the mainstream’s obsession with Amy Winehouse, to a lesser extent Raphael Saadiq and other Motown-sound re-creators has long since passed.

The Verdict: Any album that can be played through, no skips, is an accomplishment. Dope soul album from an ironic but totally capable source. Hawthorne was shooting to be Smokey + Dilla rolled into one, he may just be on to something.

INFO:
Artist: Mayer Hawthorne
Label: Stones Throw
Release Date: October 6. 2009

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The Deal: The New Orleans beat rider, Curren$y releases his second digital-only album in 2009 after dropping his solo debut in May and seven mixtapes in 2008 alone.

The Good: Arguably some of the best, under-the-radar production around coupled with a calculated but seemingly careless flow that’s oftentimes more clever than expected from the guy that asked “Where Da Cash At?” in 2006. Curren$y manages to tell common rap lifestyle stories uniquely and distinctly. Unlike his hip-hop peers who have all the braggadocio without the album sales or critical acclaim, he’s aware of his place in the genre, as he rasps on “Stay Up,” he’s “somewhere between the rich and famous and a starving artist.”

The Bad: There’s little difference between his mixtape flow versus his album flow and while the tracks seem more polished, the content is still burgeoning fame, weed and women. The song structure and ad libs still feel like a mixtape. Listeners can get lost in the groove and tune out the lyrics.

The Verdict: It’s hard to gauge if Curren$y is an average rapper riding dope beats or a great rapper enhancing jazzy, low-key production. Either way, it’s easy to digest and dope to smoke or ride to but it’s missing that clear delineation that sets it aside from just another mixtape. Then again, it was marketed as just the prelude to his 2010 album, “Grand Scheme of Things.”

INFO:
Curren$y (Twitter | Album Site)
Amalgam Digital; Release Date: October 6, 2009

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Kid Cudi
Man on the Moon: The End of Day
Motown; Release date: Aug. 25, 2009

The Deal: The “emo guy” from hip-hop’s freshmen class drops his long awaited debut.

The Good: Let’s just skip the singles. “Day ‘N Nite” and “Make Her Say” were both dope; both stick out with the dream theme of the album, but they’re hot nonetheless. “Soundtrack 2 My Life” and “My World” stand out in “The End of Day” + “Rise of the Night Terrors” Acts. Acts III-V are where Cudi actually looks at the bright side.

“Sky Might Fall,” a track when the downer finally casts his worries away, produced by Kanye West, and “Enter Galactic (Love Connection, Pt. 1),” a spacey, electro-pop, love song produced by the ILLFONICS Matt Friedman lift the album out of the fog. “Alive (Nightmare) features electronic duo Ratatat and Cudi crooning that “every time the moon shines, I become alive.” “Cudi Zone” comes on like a “Love In This Club” knock off but finishes uniquely his own. “Pursuit of Happiness (Nightmare)” sees MGMT lend its touch to a track that may crossover into both fan bases (still don’t know about it being the third single).

“Hyyerr,” an smooth track to ride to that will put you in the mind of fellow Cleveland natives Bone Thugs N Harmony and their sound, and “Up, Up & Away” are for the smokers, both good grooves.

Cudi could win an award for best use of guest appearances, with Billy Cravens, Ratatat, MGMT, Kanye, Common and even Chip The Ripper all enhancing the tracks they jumped on. Plus Common’s chapter segues weren’t terrible either.

The Bad: I’ve heard of music as therapy but damn, Cudi is Debbie Downer from the beginning of the album. Keep your phone close by to call a friend during Acts I & II (Tracks 1-6) because they may make you feel pretty low (except for the previous mentioned songs). Thankfully, the album does gain steam but most listeners will jump ship before “the good part.” You never want to knock an artist that tries too hard but at times the material comes of forced, like he’s going to force me to feel what he feels. What’s the deal with a five-act album anyway?

The Verdict: It’s depressingly dope. Strange at first but very listenable. Artists usually don’t come out the gates with a truly introspective, concept album. Bold debut, don’t know if the label liked it but looking beyond the singles, it’s a stellar first take (plus the bonus material from the iTunes download makes it well worth the double-click).

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The Deal: Four notoriously lyrical rappers, Joe Budden, Joell Ortiz, Crooked I and Royce Da 5′9, join forces to create hip-hop’s latest “super group.”

The Good: This album delivered more than its fair share of “oooh” lines. On “Killaz,” Royce Da 5′9 spits “you fuckin with a killa/take your body, rape your body, dump it in the river/turn myself in then, beat the case for it then/turn around and put ‘I really did it’ on my Twitter” — not into murder rap but I had to admit that was clever.

All four styles meshed well but didn’t break away from their distinctive regional sounds (Royce Da 5′9 – Detroit, Ortiz – New York, Budden – New Jersey and Crooked I – California).

The lyrical segues between verses put you in the mind of old school joints and made sure you we’re never confused about who’s on the mic. “Not Tonight,” “Onslaught 2″ and “Cut You Loose” are all solid. “Cuckoo” is far from a single but still hot, biting Jay-Z’s “No Hook” over a hip-hop-meets-horror beat. “Pray” is a very truthful and autobiographical track with a great beat by RealSon, hot even without a Budden verse. “Raindrops” could be the theme song to a single parent upbringing, with Novel doing his best Jodeci on a Death Row-hook impression.

The Bad: The problem with lyricists is they have trouble turning hot lines into hot songs, and Slaughterhouse is no different. It says something that the most “nod-worthy” track, “The One,” was a lyrical lightweight. Slaughterhouse’s empty lyrical threats were better suited for a freestyle on the corner than a studio album. I wish Pharaoh Monche had a verse on “Salute” rather than just singing the chorus. Some of the hottest tracks from the Internet bootleg weren’t on the retail but could’ve definitely made the album better.

The Verdict: Chances are you’d never hear any of their songs on the radio below the Mason-Dixon but fans of lyricism will proclaim its glory while people just looking for good hip-hop will only bump it every now and again.

INFO:

Artist: Slaughterhouse

Label: E1 Music

Release Date: August 11, 2009

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Anyone who has witnessed Catrin Finch at Spoleto in recent years, particularly her assault on Bach’s mightiest Toccata and Fugue, will not be surprised that the Royal Harpist to the Prince of Wales has been emboldened to transcribe the Goldberg Variations to the most cumbersome, effeminate instrument in the orchestra. She can do as she wills, and here proves herself more than merely the “Segovia of the harp,” a label affixed to a harp wizard of a previous generation. Finch takes herself beyond the self-accompanying wonders that have been achieved on harp and guitar, invading the contrapuntal domain of the harpsichord and piano.

For the most part, Finch holds her own when measured against the great piano exponents of the Goldbergs. If Glenn Gould softened the music on piano, retaining some of the harpsichord’s crispness and clarity of line, then it’s useful to describe Finch as taking the romantic polish of Daniel Barenboim’s performance and shining it even more brightly on her more ethereal harp, restoring some of Gould’s baroque freshness simply by not taking so lugubriously long about it. In doing so, she stands closest to the middle ground of Murray Perahia.

Listeners familiar with the Goldbergs will instantly be gladdened by the faithfulness of Finch’s transcription. In a booklet graced with a blurb from Prince Charles, there is an extensive interview with Michael Church, where Finch admits that it took her a year to make her adaptation of the most chromatically challenging Variation, the 25th – and that she finally had to settle for a compromise with the 11th. On the other hand, Finch claims that Variation 7 works better on harp than the piano and points to the Variations in the minor mode – 15, 21, and 25 – with similar pride.

Finch quickly proves her credibility with her dexterous gallop through Variation 1, yielding nothing in speed to the great piano versions. Listeners may be as taken aback by the effect of the harp’s ethereal resonance as they are with the soloist’s ability to execute all those trills, clusters, counterpoints, and phrasings that are the keyboard’s birthright. Confidence is restored with the mid-tempo rendition of Variation 2, and a fresh surprise awaits in Variation 3: the resonating baseline underneath the dulcet treble actually sounds like a pipe organ.

Skip ahead to the Variation 10 Fughetta to hear the most impressive example of Finch’s contrapuntal mastery. Variation 14, perhaps the most idiosyncratic of all, is attacked with a jubilant glee that makes Perahia sound cold by comparison. Variation 20 has more uptempo dazzle, but it’s Variation 28, up in the treble stratosphere, where Finch’s artistry is perhaps most convincing. Here the music sounds as if it belongs to the harp. For a brief moment, it’s the keyboard version that is hard to imagine. “Queen of harps”? That label has already been affixed to Finch. Deservedly.

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By Perry Tannenbaum

Long time ago, back in the days of JazzCharlotte, a British PR agent gushed over the talent of trumpeter Scotty Barnhart and gave me a bootleg cassette tape to bolster her boasts. She was right about Barnhart, who was even more electrifying when he performed here live than he was on the shabby bootleg.

Now there’s finally a Scotty Barnhart CD for the world to hear, Say It Plain, and I feel like I’m divulging a secret that shouldn’t have been secret nearly so long. The lineup of guest artists who showed up for these 2008 recording dates – topped by cameos from fellow trumpet aces Clark Terry and Wynton Marsalis – is an accurate gauge of the high-grade straight-ahead jazz you’ll hear throughout. Keyboard giants Marcus Roberts and Ellis Marsalis also show up separately on five of the 12 tracks, Ellis at his silky best on the Jimmy Dorsey ballad, “I’m Glad There Is You,” Roberts most memorable on “The Burning Sands,” one of five Barnhart originals.

Wynton joins Scotty on Dizzy Gillespie’s “Con Alma,” while Terry blows and sings – in his trademark mumbledy fashion – on the closing track, “Pay Me My Money,” a freshly-minted Clark/Barnhart tune. Unity Music stablemate Jamie Davis drops in for “Young at Heart,” mellow payback for Barnhart’s contributions to the singer’s Vibe Over Perfection last year.

All it takes is a few bars of “Giant Steps” to be hooked on this release as Leon Anderson, Jr., opens up on drums and a ref’s whistle. Barnhart comes in on trumpet with Todd Williams overlapping on soprano sax, and suddenly you realize that Scotty has rearranged Trane’s hardbop classic into a festive New Orleans shuffle – with Roberts applying another twist later on with a stride piano solo. Occasionally, you do get samplings of what Barnhart’s core quartet/quintet sounds like. A taste of “Put On a Happy Face” provides all the joyous reassurance you need, with Barnhart blazing and pianist Bill Peterson sounding a little like Oscar.

None other than the esteemed Stanley Crouch pontificates in the album notes, and there’s a celebration of the new Say It Plain release up in New York this Saturday evening – at the renowned Blue Note Jazz Club, where Barnhart’s quintet is scheduled to make joyful noises at midnight. Yes, it seems Barnhart has arrived. I damn sure hope he stays.

Here’s a video of “Haley’s Passage” in a longer, less artfully mixed version than you’ll hear on the CD, but with the same sextet: Scotty Barnhart (flumpet), Todd Williams (soprano sax), Rick Lollar (guitar), Bill Peterson (piano), Leon Anderson, Jr. (drums), and Rodney Jordan (bass). Camera works sucks – you never get a good look at Scotty’s flumpet – but the music is golden.

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