GZA/Genius - Liquid Swords (1995)

Lyrically my favourtie hip-hop ablum ever? I think so. The GZA (pronounced Jizza) is easily recognised as the most intelligent member of the Wu-Tang Clan and remains one of the only members with a shred of talent left in his body. This is a violent, dark and bloody album and the beats and lyrics reflect this. It, as the album cover suggests, is like a graphic novel with over the top violence and the like. In nearly every line of the album you can find double, even triple, meanings. The main idea of the album is GZA rapping about the ninja wu-tang persona and how certain aspects of this relate to real life situations in New York. It's difficult to explain as I get a different idea of what the album's about everytime I listen to it.
The production is amazing from RZA, very raw and grimey in the original US way, rather than the Wiley sense of the word. If this album is lyrically enjoyed I recommend the Wu's first solo album for further listening, if it is enjoyed due to the beats then I recommend the first album of Mobb Deep.
I hope you enjoy it Matt.

PackFM - whutduzFMstand4? (2006)

PackFM is a Hip-Hop artist on the QN5 label, which brought us past Album Swap success in the shape of Cunninlynguists. PackFM has a much more mainstream sound than most other underground artists and this album is extremely well produced. I hope you treat it with an open mind, and I warn you in advanced that 'all the tracks sound the same' wont cut it here, because they don't. Enjoy, fellas.
Let me know if you need a link, I am currently uploading it as I can't find it anywhere but its taking ages.
Edit:

http://rapidshare.com/files/302380454/whatdoesfmstandfor.rar

Cunninlynguists - Strange Journey Volume 1 (2009)

This Cunninlynguists mixtape came out a couple of weeks ago and I was so surprised at how good it is. The production is some of the best I've ever heard while the lyrics aren't amazing compared to other CL releases like A Piece of Strange they are still much better than the type of hip-hop you'd find on the music channels and radio. The album is loosely based on the band touring around America and the different things they come across along the way - homesickness, meeting new people, wacky experience (hence the album's name) and trouble from police. This mixtape features two tracks from other artists not in the band (as hip-hop artists often do), The Distance by Tonedeff and Die for you by Mr. SOS.
Enjoy.

1. Departure (intro)
2. Nothing But Strangeness (feat. Looptroop Rockers & Hilltop Hoods)
3. Lynguistics
4. Move
5. Spark my Soul (feat. Substantial)
6. Never Come Down (the Brownie Song)
7. Hypnotized (feat. PackFM & Club Dub)
8. Dance for Me (remix)
9. Die for You by Mr. SOS
10. White Guy Mind Tricks
11. KKKY (remix) (feat. Skinny DeVille, Fishscales, Young Chu & Sheisty Khrist)
12. Georgia (remix) (feat. Killer Mike & Khujo Goodie)
13. Dont Leave (When Winter Comes) (feat. Slug)
14. The Distance by Tonedeff [doobedoobedoo]
15. Broken Van (Thinking of You) (feat. Mac Lethal)
16. Billy Joes Garage (to be Continued)

http://rapidshare.com/files/220805262/Strange_Journey_Volume_1.rar.html

cLOUDDEAD - cLOUDDEAD (2001) (Special Review: Dan)

I'm listening to cLOUDDEAD's self titled 2001 album by request from Matt. He never really told me what genre it is, or what I should expect and as I've never heard them before I came into this expecting anything. I would call cLOUDDEAD a hip hop album, but as I'm not really a hip hop fan and don't have a lot to compare this to people may wish to argue with this. I enjoyed the track listing - there are six track titles, each with two parts. I was expecting twelve different tracks though, but I was pleasantly surprised after listening to both parts of Apt. A to find that they were relatively similar sounding, and then after hearing the first part to And All You Can Do Is Laugh was pleased to hear that it sounded very different.

To be honest, I find this really difficult to review; There is nothing I like about what I hear, but there is not I don't like at the same time. This genre of music just doesn't interest me. The vocals are bizarre, and I think the whole album reminds me of The Avalanches - which can't really be a good thing.

I'm actually having so much trouble trying to write anything here, I just can't understand what there is to enjoy about this album. I also can't really work out how to give it a score. Because from my statement where I said that "There is nothing I like but there is nothing I don't like" it suggests that it should be given a 2.5 - A nice, medium score. However, at the same time I'm thinking 'If there is NOTHING that I like, how can I give it anything more than a 0?'. So, cLOUDDEAD has been difficult on a number of levels, I think listening has been the worst.

It has a very electronic sound, with vocals that sound quirky, and extremely unusual. I recall Matt telling me that he likes unusual, and I think that is why he likes this - I really can't think of another reason why he might. Also, though I think it's a bit irrelevant, I seem to have noticed that on every hiphop album I have listened to in the past, there has been a section where we hear a phone being dialled or ringing. Hip-Hoppers clearly find this an exciting sound...Sadly, I dont.

I'm going to give up with this now, there really is nothing else I can say. Ah, although I can announce that I was only able to listen to this thanks to Spotify. Though, if anything, this is a bad thing.

So I need to come up with a score...I'm just going to go between my two thoughts, and give it a 1.25 / 5.

"It's all the same shit, but they call it cLOUDDEAD"