“I’m back from my sabbatical,” Talib raps on the opening track of Revolutions Per Minute. It’s true: Kweli hasn’t released an album since 2007’s decent Eardrum, and it’s been a full ten years since he collaborated with Hi-Tek as Reflection Eternal. Even three years silence is quite a long time in hip hop, and a decade is an eon in the game. Hence, it’s almost surprising that the two are back. So how did it all turn out?
From the start with the opening skit, the record tries to create a grand impression. The announcer declares the duo intends create, “a shift in the paradigm of hip hop.” Rather than simply come out with a strong album, the two have placed quite the burden on themselves. While it’s certainly better than most of what’s out there today, there’s not much of anything present on the record that displays this intent. In fact, the album hardly seems to find clarity. Many of the tracks feel as if they’re a starting point, so the record keeps doubling back on itself, never losing or gaining ground. Not to suggest that every album should be a cohesive work, but little on the album seems to mesh.
The album makes a bit of noise about the state of hip hop along with its pledge to move things forward. Skits tossed in on tracks poke fun at the current popularity of what essentially amounts to hip pop and so on, but ultimately, the album doesn’t make any more strides against this. Talib’s social commentary goes little beyond, “To my people sick a being treated like the aliens from District 9.” Ultimately, in fact, this record itself is – albeit a good one – a pop record. Hi-Tek’s laid back production provides radio-friendly potential, potential that was previously used instead by Talib for the great Train of Thought.
Now instead, as hard as it is for me to come down on Kweli, he seems either a bit tired, bored, or ready to simply make some money. Which seems a bit odd: this record isn’t one exactly prepped to make big sales regardless of its material. Yet, nonetheless, Talib disappoints with lines such as, “They gonna smile like Mona Lisa / I’m married to the game, throw the Rice like Condoleezza.” Present throughout the record are some of the usual suspects of respectable hip hop: Bun B and of course Mos Def, as well as more recent figures, Jay Electronica and J Cole. Yet all their appearances don’t really seem to amount to much this outing, they’re lost amongst the whitewash of the smoothed out album.
None of this is meant to suggest the record is bad – it’s not, it’s among the better hip hop albums to arrive this year. However, this isn’t really saying much. “Midnight Hour” serves a good example of the disappointment that this record is. It features a fantastic beat – a really fantastic beat. First listen, I thought, “Awesome, Talib’s gonna rip this.” Instead, it surprisingly features a dull Estelle chorus and – believe it or not – a worse performance by Talib. Rather than use his assured flow, he switches it up to a more sing-song rap, and I had to admit that it mostly grates the ears. It’s these sort of missteps that are unexpected and mar the record. Kind of hope Weezy notices that beat when he’s out of prison, it deserves a great verse.
Now all of this isn’t to suggest that the record doesn’t have its moments. It has some pretty great ones. “Lifting Off” finds Talib talking about drug use, and its both intimate and a bit disturbing. “Ballad of the Black Gold” is the album’s strongest social song, “Ends” – featuring the ever reliable Bilal – begins to close the album on a good note, and so on. It should also be mentioned that Hi-Tek is the album’s greatest asset, while on Train of Thought a focused Talib more-or-less dominated the album; the beats shine this time through. It’s not just because of a weaker Kweli either, the producer is at his very best and nearly every beat is fantastic, again making the listener wish Talib had been more on his game. Yet wishing be damned, he just isn’t. In the end though, Talib disappointing is still beyond many current MC’s abilities, so Revolutions Per Minute serves as a bit of a pleasant letdown.
