Released March 2014
My knowledge of this guy before today consisted of watching his music video for the song Manny Pacquiao about a hundred times over the past two years. Anyone who has late night dance partied with me has heard it. And now you're about to as well.
If you read anything about him, you'll get an onslaught of 'word play', 'clever word play', 'words', 'english degree', 'he knows words', 'his verses are a combination of words', and on and on on. There's a lot of 'is there a deeper message in the riddle of mind wandering phrases? is A.D. so scared of vulnerability that he cloaks his sentiments in humor thick enough for the passer by to pass by happily but untouched?'. I don't know what that's all about.
His old Das Racist duet partner, Heems, calls it panic-attack-rap on the track Rainbow in the Dark. That's probably as good a critique as you're going to get. It's quip after quip. It's either background music or a practice in concentration. It's a damn Luminosity (trademark emblem) test. Give it a shot:
I don't know that he's intentionally covering his tracks with jokes but he definitely gets a kick out of being clever. He's 'Kool A.D., like the refreshment powder/ the blessing counter, the lesson doubter/ messing with the freshest flowers/ bring the heat like a Smith and Wesson touter'. He paid attention to his imagery techniques class at Wesleyan University. Every other line presents you with a person/item/movement/word that he claims is "him" - 'I'm Madonna'.
He does some serious name dropping on this album bringing along pals Talib Kweli and the oh so hip Toro y Moi among others. You'll notice and probably appreciate what sets A.D. apart from your run of the mill rappers on the track Tight. I'm not going into it. I'd need an explicit language warning and you'd have to be 18 to continue reading.
Give it a spin.
With love
Dennis
Continuing education:
The roots, Das Racist:
He does some serious name dropping on this album bringing along pals Talib Kweli and the oh so hip Toro y Moi among others. You'll notice and probably appreciate what sets A.D. apart from your run of the mill rappers on the track Tight. I'm not going into it. I'd need an explicit language warning and you'd have to be 18 to continue reading.
Give it a spin.
With love
Dennis
Continuing education:
The roots, Das Racist:
Reminds me of 90s Non Phixion with (I'm assuming) a considerably smokier studio and much friendlier content:
clever fella
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