With Tuesday, February 21 2006 already looming i’m back with the new Dilated Peoples album cover, tracklist and a link to the album sampler. The trioﾒs first three albums – 2000ﾒs The Platform, 2001ﾒs Expansion Team and 2004ﾒs Neighborhood Watch may be a distant memory to some however over the years they have been hailed as exemplary examples of quality hip-hop. After enjoying the biggest radio and television exposure of their career with the 2004 hit “This Way,” produced by and featuring Kanye West, Dilated Peoples have opted to make a point that they had a clear vision for their music, hence the title for the new album, “20/20”:
“Weﾒve done a lot of experimentation, worked with a lot of different people and tried a lot of different things. With this record, we wanted to really get back to a real, uncut pure vision and get back to the pure, boom-bap sound that really made us all get together as people and want to make music together,” Rakaa explains.
Last year dubcnn premiered the lead single “Back Again” which sees DJ Babu (also a member of the World Famous Beat Junkies) accenting the thumping cut with his precision scratching while both Evidence and Rakaa update their fans on their musical agenda and highlight their dedication to the art of rhyme. Evidence explained: “In todayﾒs rap game, people are worried about whether or not Iﾒm making money, but itﾒs not glorified that Iﾒm writing my own rhymes or making my vision clear; I just felt it was a bold statement and needed to be said.”
Other tracks on the album include “Alarm Clock Music,” where the crew get across equally thought-provoking rhymes over a powerful, keyboard and scratch-propelled beat. Rakaa said: “We named the song ﾑAlarm Clock Musicﾒ because it is supposed to wake people up. We wanted the beat and those cuts to come across like that. Lyrically, the third verse in particular had to do with conflict, whether itﾒs on the block or nation to nation. It doesnﾒt matter if itﾒs across the street or across the world because theyﾒre very closely related. The song itself is a wake-up call.”
“You Canﾒt Hide, You Canﾒt Run,” is a cut where the group raps about making the best of a bad situation: “Life is going to come at you regardless,” Rakaa says. “It doesnﾒt mean you canﾒt flip lemons to lemonade and lemonade to Minute Made. You can make the best of a bad situation and I think itﾒs more necessary than ever. Thereﾒs no shortage of nonsense coming at you because itﾒs a crazy world right now.”
Dilated Peoples then get aggressive on the confrontational “Kindness For Weakness” before teaming up with reggae king Capleton on the pounding, politically charged “Firepower (The Tables Have To Turn).” Elsewhere Evidence highlights his lyrical acuity on the intense “Another Sound Mission” and DJ Babu showcases his superior turntable and production skills on the scratch-heavy “The One And Only.”
The beats on the album come from Alchemist, Evidence, Joey Chavez and Bravo and DJ Babu and are among the most forceful of Dilated Peopleﾒs career. The group made a point to feature intense production on “20/20,” something that makes the album an exciting aural experience that will translate well to the groupﾒs highly regarded stage shows. DJ Babu explains: “We said to ourselves, ﾑThe energy levels have to be up, a big part of our group is performance. Another way of looking at the songs that we make for the record is things that weﾒre adding to our live show. Thatﾒs another side of us that fans really love us for, having music that translates well onto stage. Rakaa put it well when said, ﾑA lot times when weﾒre in the studio we try to capture the energy that happens on stage.'”
Evidence wrapped up by explaining: “20/20, the whole album was made on a 12″ mentality, we werenﾒt worried about the whole album, how it was going to connect and if we had two love songs and one party song. We just banged it out. We put the record together two or three days before the end of it. We didnﾒt sit and ride with it. We had it and knew where we were going, but it was more about the individual tunes. There was no questioning ourselves. It was just about making music.”
As ever dubcnn has the audio we have already premiered over the past few months for those who missed to check and as we recently featured the new Dilated Peoples video as “Video of the Week” i have that for you all again too. Below is also the complete album tracklist. To listen to the audio and watch the video visit our Release Dates page for Dilated Peoples.
01) Green Trees (Feat. Dr. Greenthumb)
02) Back Again
03) You Can’t Hide, You Can’t Run
04) Alarm Clock Music
05) Olde English (Feat. Defari)
06) Kindness For Weakness (Feat. Talib Kweli)
07) Another Sound Mission
08) Rapid Transit (Feat. Krondon)
09) The Eyes Have It
10) Satellite Radio
11) Firepower (The Tables Have To Turn) (Feat. Capleton)
12) The One And Only
13) 20/20
To Pre-Order the album you can visit CDUniverse and to hear “You Can’t Hide, You Can’t Run” from the album then visit the groups Album Sampler. We will have more news and exclusives from Dilated over the coming weeks.
