NEWS
EVENTS
Album of the Month: CunninLynguists - Strange Journey Volume Three
RnB/Hip Hop | Thursday 2nd October 2014 | Joe
Ardent fans of this talented trio may well have feared that CunninLynguists' best days had disappeared behind the hill. Following the outstanding critical acclaim for their debut album Will Rap For Food (2001) - required listening for any students of noughties Hip-Hop - we could be forgiven for feeling a little disappointed with successive albums SouthernUnderground (2003) and A Piece Of Strange (2006), which perhaps failed to truly recapture the stunning linguistic versatility of their breakthrough LP. Fear not; for their latest mixtape suggests that CunninLynguists are back and better than ever.
A Strange Journey it certainly is, with Deacon, Kno and Natti straying from the straight path of conventional album production in this third installment of their collaborative LP. Deacon The Villain, who provides the majority of the intellectual and artistic direction of the three, has described Strange Journey III as an enjoyable interlude to their more 'serious', purer albums that feature less collaborations and mixtures of flow. Indeed he revealed to Sound of Boston in September that the entire conception for Strange Journey III had come from the CunninLynguistics' fans; the collaborations, the themes of their lyrics, even the album artwork was chosen at the behest of popular support.
If Strange Journey III is indeed the child of populist rap production, then the mixtape is undoubtedly cause enough to champion ever more of these copulations between Hip-Hop artists and their fans. For this is an LP that threatens to outgrow its genre of underground rap, just as Will Rap For Food did for CunninLynguists thirteen years ago. Smooth, uncomplicated beats ally with ambient flows and hard-hitting lyrics to create a sensational narrative throughout the mixtape. Deacon and Kno as ever stand out for the wit and rhyming genius that has established their names in American Hip-Hop.
What really sets Strange Journey III apart, however, is the sheer scale and scope of its collaborative energy. The fans asked and the fans got. From Apathy to Celph Titled, Tunji to Masta Ace; CunninLynguists clearly still hold the power to attract a galaxy of stars to their studios, all of whom add a different dimension to the LP. A commitment to high-end production, whether it be the consistency of the inter-galactic narrator, or the controlled complexity of the lyrics themselves, ensures that this is a great deal more than a simple mish-mash mixtape.
If you're looking for highlights then we'd recommend 'Innerspace' featuring Toby - whose opening bars will surely leave many drawing parallels with a young Eminem - and the real showstopper 'Hot' featuring Celph Titled and Apathy. The latter is head-nodder for every occasion and well worth a listen. It is the culmination of a mixtape that in many ways confirms the longevity and status of CunninLynguists as fixtures in the basement of underground American Hip-Hop.
If you are unfamiliar with their work, by all means go back to the start, Will Rap For Food will never fail to disappoint. For those of us however who have craved the reawakening of a group with one of the most diverse lexicons on the Hip-Hop scene, Strange Journey Volume Three has answered our prayers.
