Neighborhood Watch

by

Dilated Peoples

Edit

After a 3 year hiatus, Evidence, Iriscience, and Babu bring us their third album, Neighborhood Watch. After avoiding the sophomore slump with their excellent 2001 album, Expansion Team, Dilated was looking to deliver a classic with this one, but falls short mainly due to Evidence's much-criticized method of delivery.

Lyrically, Ev has almost taken a step back, and his monotone flow sounds as boring as ever, particularly on his self-produced "Love & War". He shows spurts of energy on higher-tempo tracks like "Who's Who", but doesn't hold a candle to his partner in rhyme, Rakaa Iriscience.

Rakaa is severely slept on as an emcee, probably due to Evidence's lack of charisma on the mic. When he goes for delf, such as on the politically-charged "Big Business", it's obvious that he's stepped up his game:

"But I fight for peace, that's what the problem is

War is big biz, ask an economist

They speak in volumes, just

Callin' anti-war and anti-American synonomous

Back in the day I'd have gotten blacklisted just for speaking up

Hoover probably would've screamed 'Communist!'"

Production-wise, Dilated's friendship with the Alchemist doesn't hurt Neighborhood Watch at all, as he gives them heat with tracks like "Marathon", "Poisonous", and "World on Wheels". Evidence's beats are still top-notch with tracks like the aforementioned "Love & War", and Babu is also fine-tuning his skills behind the boards, lacing the Dilated-Likwit posse cut "Closed Session" and his remake of "DJ Premier In Deep Concentration", cleverly titled "DJ Babu In Deep Concentration". Everyone's favorite college dropout, Kanye West, drops in to produce and guest on "This Way", which tries way too hard to recreate the feel of Talib Kweli's "Get By", but still sounds good. The only dud is Evidence's solo track, the boring, ironically named "Caffeine", which production-wise doesn't hit with the same force that the rest of the album does.

Neighborhood Watch is one of the best hip-hop albums of 2004 so far, but it's not the step up from Expansion Team that it should have been.

Note: 3 and 1/2 stars!

"Neighborhood Watch" feels like an unkept promise from a group who has (in the past) been a trustworthy source for quality music. I don't mean to undermine their messages; Dilated Peeps keeps true to their standards, spreading largely positive messages. As a matter of fact, I'd give this record an A++ for messages, Evidence and Rakaa show a very thoughtful and determined side of themselves on this CD, which is more than half the reason I gave this album a 4 star rating. The problem is, this record often sacrifices it's beats and, in some cases, it's lyrics for this reason.

Their single, "This Way" featuring Kanye West was without a doubt, a truly addictive track. The problem is, this is Dilated Peoples' single, and both Evidence and Rakaa get outshined by Kanye. I ignored this fact when hearing the single, however, reasoning with myself "Well, they've always been a solid group in the past. I'll get the CD." You know what they say. Curiosity killed the cat... and it turns out, your bank-account too. After listening to the album, I wanted my twenty dollars back. I never spend twenty dollars on a CD, I almost always wait till I can find it used for less, but no, I had to get it opening day. What a shame. The choruses are almost always overly repetitive, and I can't pick out more than one, maybe two verses on the CD that shine... apart from Kanye's. Think about it. Aren't the best hip-hop CD's often the ones with a verse or two that gets replayed in your head even after you're done listening to the CD?

HOWEVER, there ARE some very play-worthy tracks on this CD. Don't get me wrong. This CD would not have gotten off with a four star rating if it didn't. Track 9, "Love and War", which is mysteriously reminiscent of their classic cut "Worst Comes To Worst" from Expansion Team, boasts a head nodding beat, a strong message of togetherness and struggle, and the lyricism you expect from emcees the caliber of Evidence and Rakaa. I suppose this CD is more of a let-down for me because I've been a Dilated Peoples fan for a long time. I've become used to a certain standard they carry. Maybe it was bad luck, not every CD a group releases is gonna be hot, but what makes it the worst, is that there was no really noticeable word-play on the album. That's a big part of what rap is about - lyricism. If you don't have potent lyrical talent, your record won't survive. The closest you get to good word-play comes off of the single "This Way", "Tryin' To Breathe", "Love and War", and "Poisonous" featuring Devin The Dude, the latter being probably one of the most stand-out tracks on the entire CD.

So, here's a quick sum of it all for ya.

PRO'S

*Tracks 3 (Tryin' To Breathe), 6 (Poisonous), 8 (Big Business), 9 (Love and War), 11 (World on Wheels), and 13 (This Way) are all play-worthy tracks, though that only comes to a total of 6 out of 14 tracks getting play.

*Solid messages, ranging from anti-misogynism, politics, drugs, drinking, thuggin' and general survival. Very positive album, something the industry needs more of.

*Beats ranging from dismally repetitive (very unlike Dilated Peoples) to incredibly addictive and original (now that's MUCH more like it).

CONS

*What happened to Evidence and Rakaa? Lacking wordplay.

*No noticeably stand out verses, lines, or emcees for that matter.

*An "every third track" affair, which makes rotation frustrating, since after every good track, you have to skip two or three to get to the next one.

SUMMARY

A 3 and 1/2 record that boasts some very addictive 'head nodders' as well as positive messages, (which is why I hesitate to be too hard on them), but this record still feels as though it could have lyrically promised so much more.