The Platform

by

Dilated Peoples

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Famous on the hip hop underground scene, Dilated Peoples burst into the mainstream with what is the best hip hop album so far in the year 2000. This release has been long & much anticipated and the group delivers big time. Tight raps by MC's Iriscience & Evidence and pulsating beats by their DJ Babu create an album full of sonic pleasures. The best cut on the album is "Right On" which includes guest rappers The Alkoholics. With other stand out guests and great songs like the title track, "Annahilation", "Shape Of Things To Come" and "Guarenteed", The Platform is worth your time and money.

Dilated has been around for a minute and this album was their introduction to the world outside of the LA underground. Consisting of Rakka Iriscience, Evidence & DJ Babu (of the legendary Beat Junkies) this album has all the elements of a classic boom bap hip hop record: Bangin beats, elevated lyrics, & scratches that just seem to be perfect. Given all of this how could I possibly rate it so harshly? Basically each song is great on it's own but if you try to listen to it as a whole it seems tedious, repetitive and almost boring! Rakka and Ev are both top caliber emcees and they come strong on this album, but it is defiantly Rakka who grabs your attention with his almost off beat flow and deep voice. Babu does an amazing job crafting beats that like I said hark back to the days of boom bap like few producers can. Add his precise cuts and scratches and he might just come across as a genius. This album is not terrible and definitely worth checkin for, especially considering their truly bad album that was released last year "Neighborhood Watch." This album is not bad just too much of the same!