While his first solo-album, The Weatherman LP didn’t quite earn him the praise and success that he deserved, it might actually all happen with his follow-up: After Evidence had been hiding for a good four years, he’s now having Cats & Dogs rain from the sky and comes forward with an album, on which he melts his poignantly slow Flow together with a record full of perfectly pumping beats into an actual masterpiece. But it’s not just Evidence – who has found a new home at the label Rhymesayers in Minneapolis, Minnesota – deserving to be praised, but also a large number of featuring guests, like Slug of Atmosphere and Aesop Rock in Late For The Sky, Roc Marciano and Prodigy in Fame or Raekwon and Rass Kass in The Red Carpet. And it is quite a beat-carpet that’s being rolled out for the latter by Evidence and his old friend The Alchemist: it’s clearly one of the best tracks on the whole record. Even Aloe Blacc hands out his business card right at the beginning of the album, by throwing in a little part for the opener The Liner Notes.Of course, the obligatory Premo-Beat has to be part of the show, and so the grand seigneur shows his skills in You, a wonderful boom-bap-track with a Marvin-Staples-sample as its foundation, marvelously finished off by Evidence himself. This album doesn’t just shorten the waiting time for a new Dilated Peoples record. This album is actually really good.
Glenn Astro & Hulk Hodn
Ghosts
Kommerz