Fifth studio album by Salaam Remi, New York producer who collaborates with numerous artists on this project: Busta Rhymes, Mumu Fresh, Black Thought, Doug E. Fresh, Cee Lo Green, Bilal, Teedra Moses, D-Nice, Mack Wilds, Common, Case, Betty Wright, James Poyser, Stephen Marley, Anthony Hamilton, Syleena Johnson, B. Trenton, Chronixx, Super Cat, Nas, Jennifer Hudson and Spragga Benz.
Overall, this record, with intro by Malcolm X and outro by Sandra Bland, is closer to soul and gospel than hip-hop. Most of the songs are sung and the rest, 5 out of 17 ("No Peace", "Really Real Out Here", "Afrikan Children", "Yonder" and "Black Progress"), they're mainly performed by Black Thought, with the only exception of "Yonder", where Nas provides the rap part along with Jennifer Hudson's sung chorus. So, it's almost another EP with Black Thought featuring some guests. Among the other performers, Stephen Marley, Cee Lo Green and Mumu Fresh are all present twice: in particular, Mumu Fresh stands out with one of the album's best stanzas in "No Peace" and another highlight in "Tear It Down", performed in rapping and singing respectively.
The arguments offered by most of the performers are socio-conscious and political, it might be one of the best works of the season in hip-hop, however, the production is bad. Salaam Remi has never been a good producer: he started his career in 1986, making a forgettable rhythm for one of Kurtis Blow's career-ending albums, and since then he has continued to produce forgettable beats for many other artists, including some of the best performers in rap, becoming known primarily for continuing to musically bury Nas' most recent albums ("God's Son", "Street Disciple", "Hip Hop Is Dead", "Life Is Good").
"No Peace" is supposed to be the strongest cut on the record, instead, it's taken down from one of the worst productions on the tape: the rhythm is poor, based on bad drum, bad samples and annoying synths. Cee Lo's solo cut has an awkward musical carpet and the music never seems to get better in the following songs, with a continuous proposition of shoddy drums and cheap samples. The exception is "Yonder", where Remi finds a rare, almost decent, uptempo drum that supports Nas along with a good piano.
For the many rnb / soul songs, Salaam Remi doesn't improve his music, he only decides to put it in the background compared to the performance of the singers, and it's a solution that works partially, because the rhythms don't sound better, but they're more distant and therefore they sound less ("Comin' Outta the Rain", "Home Vacation", "Strange Fruit (Reprise)" and "Tear It Down"; in the latter there's a poor downtempo drum, but far enough not to completely ruin the song). Syl Johnson's cover "Is It Because I'm Black (Extended)" doesn't do justice to the original song: the producer brings out a bad and poor rhythm, kept afloat only by the performers and by the preciousness of leaving a whole verse to the daughter of the original author Syleena Johnson. The singer Super Cat probably has the least successful track on the dancehall track "Push Time", while the only instrumental of the edition is average.
To conclude, it's hard to say the album is disappointing: it's Salaam Remi, if you've listened to any Nas album released in the 2000s, you know what to expect, and sadly, from a musical point of view, it's not surprising that the record has so many problems unlike the successful EP with Black Thought.
Rating: 6/10.
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