The Outsider (DJ Shadow)
.................................................i really wish this was better. some great instrumentals. but the fact is that bay area hip hop is just on some unlistenable nerd tip. respect to too $hort, rasco and other acclaimed artists to come out of oakland/SF/northern cali, but you simply cannot listen to this shit more than twice unless you have the recall of a burnout. dj shadow has had a fetish for this quannum crap for his entire career, helping out these guys that are living in a simulation of rap reality. i mean, they can't flow, they have nothing to say, and if they do, it's "klever"/witty, nothing that will stand up to feed my seeds. favorites song is david banner's "seeing thangs", unapologetically political, nice hook, starry chorale supporting on the chorus. like i said, the instrumental tracks are good, but don't attempt the depth of arrangement that i enjoyed on private press or endtroducing, a couple of A+ samples as usual. what would an outkast/shadow collabo sound like? why does every schmo have Kid A in their Itunes library? because they're waiting for a shadow album that could top it. weird mix of slow jamz (a la "6 Days") and hyphy here.........buyer beware.