Experimental Chicago-based producer Bryan Ford teamed up with Wu-Tang affiliate Killah Priest, Pugs Atomz and Awdazcate to create For the Future of Hip Hop, which poses the question: is this the genre’s future in good hands, or is this album a bad omen?
While this project isn’t exactly as busted as the Babe Ruth baseball Benny from The Sandlot. However, it’s not the future and progressive thinking individual want for Hip Hop, either.
For the Future’s… biggest problem is its lack of focus. There’s not much tying these tracks together except for the experimental feel, which produces more duds than gems. The title track sounds like a Star Wars battle is going on at one point, and later, features a cluster of poorly placed electronic sounds, including one that resembles the unpleasant squeaking of someone cleaning windows. No joke. Elsewhere, a hodgepodge of sounds ruins “Fluctuations,” and Killah Priest whispers “Planet, Planet of the Gods” over and over again over a plodding beat on and track named, you guessed it, “Planet of the Gods.”
When the album connects, it gets the head bobbing and the feet ready to move. “The Stroller” is appropriately titled; it’s easy to see someone grooving down the street to the funky track à la John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. The dramatic pace of “Red Span (Instrumental)” also demonstrates Ford’s talents, but it’s “Just Me & My Girl” that’s easily the best song. The gentle guitar licks and knocking drums back Pugs’ solid raps, but it’s Awdazcate’s crooning that draws in the listener. Unfortunately, these moments are serve as the exception to the rule this time out.
Ford doesn’t shoulder all of the blame. Killah Priest and Pugs Atomz seem more into the
experimentation of the process than actually coming up with dope rhymes. Priest essentially says nothing when he rhymes on the title track, “The memoirs of the future, trapped inside a computer/The word maneuver, space intruders.” There are far too many moments like that from him. Pugs spends much of “Just Take Over” simply repeating “Feeling like my life is over, life is over,” leaving the listener to hope for the song to be over long before it ends. However, Killah Priest manages to deliver on “The Stroller,” spitting provocative rhymes like “Book of Revelation, Chapter 24, thou shall be kind and obey the law…Chapter 28, break the law spend five years upstate.” Perhaps if Priest and Pugs would have spent more time penning rhymes like this and less time repeating phrases over cluttered production, the album would have been better off.
But, they didn’t, and we’re left with an album that gets lost in its own experimentation. For the Future of Hip Hop is a hit-or-miss affair that suffers from a lack of direction.
Trash… listening to The Offering and Heavy Mental makes me feel bad that Killah is on this type of experimental trash lately.
With a name called fuckHHDX, no wonder you don’t like it. What possible cred could you really have with a name like that. Smh…
Yes, on Heavy Mental. One of the best Wu affiliated albums ever.
???!!! Did Killah Priest lose his faculties as a priest? If not, he should be defrocked after this trash of an album. His preaching method works in figuratively consecrating the eucharist. This album is straight garbage on some crappy experimental crap. This album is absolute heresy!
Real songs and real beats trash? What kind of bullshit do you guys listen too? This album is dope…y’all stuck in some hating ass, stale-eared time warp.
did you really listen to it bra? looks like you just blindly read the review, made by what looks like a high-school football reporter from the middle-of-nowhere, no less. creepy. use you ears dood…
Look likes you just read the ill-informed comment and decided to make a judgment on who is reviewing this album. I’m not a high school football reporter. I’m also not from “the middle of nowhere.” I grew up five minutes from Erie, a city with more than 100,000 people in it.
Look likes you just read the ill-informed comment and decided to make a judgment on who is reviewing this album. I’m not a high school football reporter. I’m also not from “the middle of nowhere.” I grew up five minutes from Erie, a city with more than 100,000 people in it.
Gotta disagree (mostly) Aaron…liked this drop. a few cuts are kinda limp for sure. But anything branded experimental (whether intended to be or not) is gonna rattle some peoples sensibilities and get some blowback. thought this release was good considering what’s out there now. And Priest is a lyrical genius, however you wanna cut it. peace, love & music 4ever!
Not the greatest album, but certainly not the worst. It has its moments, and for that, it’s worth a listen
This review begs the question: Where in the hell does HipHopDx find it’s reviewers? Aaron McKrell??? Who’s that? This sort of unknown, freelance, typical douche-on-the-streets reporting once again only serves to diminish the credibility of what was once a great source of legit hip-hop discovery, namely HipHopDX. Get some real heads up in there to review albums. I’ve seen this sort of thing on HipHopDx before, smh. Aaron McKrell works in the sports department for the Erie Times in Butler, Pennsylvania. Are these reviewers really who you want representing your outfit, broadcasting their feeble opinions from the middle of the woods in northern BFE PA, guiding peeps to new music? The guy has 380 Twitter followers. Not really a baller critic, imho. How is his opinion relevant to the hip-hop world anyway? What do people from the from the city think? What do real hip-hop heads think? I saw this album reviewed pretty positively on Funkmaster Flex’s site. In fact, I saw a good review of this album before on HipHopDX lol! What gives? This album is worth a fair shake. Give it an honest listen and decide for yourself…
This comment begs the question: What kind of research do you do before you type? The Erie Times-News, not the Erie Times, is in Erie, Pennsylvania. I worked there part-time for two years, from 2011-2013. You’re three years out of date. Since then I’ve worked for The News-Dispatch in Michigan City, Indiana, and currently work for The Butler Eagle in Butler, Pennsylvania (by the way, Butler is in southwestern Pennsylvania).
To my Hip Hop credential. I certainly qualify for the term of “real head,” as anyone who actually knows me can attest to. I’m knowledgeable of the culture’s past and present and well versed in the music of Hip Hop’s past and present, also. I wrote for The Rap Up for several years and have written for rap.about.com, also.
You clearly didn’t do any research on me before writing your comment. I know Hip Hop. Next time, do your homework.
He’s wrong about your biography, but he’s right about everything else. The backlash on this article is massive, take it and grow from it. It’s only fair that critics get criticized. What’s funny is they often have as much ego issues as the artists themselves, even though their job is much easier and much less creative. As a music critic, ask yourself: if you don’t like it, why listen to it, let alone talk about it ?
This album is so-so…beats are diff, dope in some spots, hokey in others. But still grabs your attention. I like it.
Album is great if not for one song, “Just Me & My Girl”. Love it!!’
KP lyrical madman! Beats are pretty dope a little off the beaten path but still pretty dope.
Love it! This album is dope!! Stay is true to the source but keeps things fresh!
ghost Of rapmas past? c’mon HHDX…christmas references in june? lmao! You guys can get more creative than that lol… for real though rhyme wise, thought this album was just ok. but the beats are slamming joe! props props props to the production work…not the same ole, kinda nice…
Great album!!
I agree with most of this review. However, I’m sick and tired of the same old BS in hip-hop these days. Sorry but stuff has been suckin lately imho. But you gotta give credit to these guys for trying to shake things up and make something that will get you to ponder where hip-hop is really going. I’ll take this over where it looks to be heading these days
For anKillah Priest album, it’s definitely very iffy. Experimenting is nice, but it doesn’t always equal good. Not feeling this one. But I will say this, if Kanye did this album instead, DX would be slapping a perfect rating on this album talking about how genius he is, and won’t be saying corny shit like “the Ghost of Rapmas Past”.
if experimenting means having beats that don’t go boom-boom-bap every song along with a tired, already-sampled-before-like-ten-times sample, with an auto-tuned chorus, then ya, this is “experimenting”. i think “experimenting” would actually probably entail something like having wailing over an eddie van halen guitar solo while a toddler banged on pots & pans and kanye played the accordion. that would be “experimenting”. these are just songs. some will hit you and some won’t. call them what you will. but to attach some “experimental” label on it, and write it off because it doesn’t fit into some safe and comfy view of hip-hop, is being on some short-sighted bullshit. shout out to these dudes for reaching and trying to create the sound rather than follow it. respect.
not bad, but not feeling it too much either. maybe i’m missing something…
this review does not do justice to the album. worth a 3.5 at least. KP, Pugs Atomz, Awdazcate bring it in a way that’s a nice break from the norms. Never heard of Brian Ford but gotta admit production is raw. Reviewer must have woke up in the wrong side of the crib or sumpin for this one wtf?
Fire! Really dug this one…a few misses but mostly cooks! Nice work review doesn’t do it justice KP is a genius
But drake get mentioned everyday fuck u fakedx.com
lol drake get blown here daily must be a canada thing
lol drake get blown here daily must be a canada thing
dope album… aaron mckrell wet behind the ears on this one dude likes t.i. nuff said
dissing KP lyrically will only give you bad bad luck. should have broke a mirror instead man
Ill
One of the best of 2016!
I can’t believe killah priest the great received 2.7 for a rating. Aaron doesn’t know what he is talking about. This is not fad music. Killah priest is dominate on the mic. He is never worthy of a 2.7. Aaron needs to go back rating garbage rap and leave hip hop to an expert.