Truth Universal
Self Determination

By Omar Mouallem

With Dilla-esque beats and X-Clan-ish lyrics, the potential for Truth Universal sounds certain, but he unfortunately misses a great opportunity to make fresh, freethinking, positive hip-hop. While his desire is to educate and to inspire, he comes off as self-righteous dilettante. His verses on “Angola 3” are so pedantic and rhythm-less that it sounds like he’s got a Wikipedia window open next to his word processor. The same vibe is emanated off “Black Culture” (featuring Cee-know the Doodlebug and Wise Intelligent). It’s as if an Afro-centric rapper was cryogenically frozen in 1990 and unfrozen 18 years later in a modern day studio. He preserves the same talky-flow that raised rap when it was still a baby, unadjusted for the polysyllabic style of today, still bent on simple rhymes at the tip of each bar. It’s a shame too, because the beats and scratches he gets from his compadres are straight heat. (Dragon's Breath)

RZA as Bobby Digital - Digi Snacks
On the heels of last winter’s chillily received Wu-Tang reunion album (do you ever hear people bumping8 Diagrams?), the Clan’s ruler Zig-Zag-Zig Allah dons the mask of his alter ego (read: id), Bobby Digital, for Digi Snacks. Never lacking creativity and forever ignoring current rap tr ...Read More
Invincible - ShapeShifters
Detroit has been a hotbed of gritty hip-hop music in recent years and Invincible is definitely doing her part in continuing to build on that tradition. Part of the reason that ShapeShifters is such a potent tour de force is that Invincible has been doing this for years. After using hip-hop rh ...Read More
9th Wonder & Jean Grae - Jeanius
Azeem - Air Cartoons
Black Grass - Three
Bun B - II Trill
C.R.A.C. Knuckles - The Piece Talks
The Extremities - The New Tonic
Herbaliser - Same As It Never Was
J-Live - Then What Happened?
Lil Wayne - Tha Carter III
N*E*R*D - Seeing Sounds
Oldskool Ice-Gre - The Gregarious Mixtape
Presto - State of the Art
Sepalot - Red Handed
Team Rezofficial - The World (And Everything in It)
Various Artists - Intel Inside
The first Uncharted was unheralded, an out-of-nowhere blast of awesome that finally let PS3 owners brag about the console's software, not just its hardware. Sure, its Indiana Jones-aping approach had previously been pixelated by Tomb Raider but Uncharted's art direction, ... Full Review
Commercial potential? The Avetts have it in spades, so don't be surprised if this disc blows up big. After building a grassroots following independently, the North Carolina trio signed to Rick Rubin's American label, and the man himself produced this, their fifth album. It's ready for primetime, as ... Full Review
Sitting in a Toronto coffee shop the week before the release of Little Girls' debut album, 20-year-old Josh McIntyre is a little worried. After an opening slot for crazed Israeli rockers Monotonix the previous night, the band's guitarist had his guitar amp repossessed. "He had it for a little longer than he was supposed to have it," he says dryly. A replacement needs to be wrangled before the band set out for their gig in Hamilton tonight.... Read More
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