Cool album by two cool dudes with cool names

You know something has a...meaning, to it when you've got Nelson Mandela opening your record. For 'tis in this manner that Reflection Eternal begins, with the man himself relating how he likes to listen to Talib Kweli and co. when he's chilling in S.A: praise indeed coming from such a man. This morphs into the first track, Experience Dedication, a thankyou to those that supported and support the duo, about the joining in with their train of thought of peace and love and keeping it real, y'all. Hmm. This actually comes across as genuine, and is worth inclusion, as opposed to the crap you might expect to pour forth if any such words began one of Nelly's songs.


Move Something is an attack on the many sellouts and fakes who currently inhabit the hip-hop world, the chorus being the most telling: "y'all cats ain't real y'all just a re-enactment/better yet dramatisation, soon as the director say action you start fakin'", with director being the producer, making music to the requirements of the label as opposed to making music the way the artist wants to. Granted, though, that those "artists" are probably rejects anyway, such as the aforementioned fool Nelly, along with Ja Rule, that other most loved of rappers.


Some Kind of Wonderful is a shameless ode to Talib's own skills, and comes off damn well too. Pretty much every line is cleverly strung together in a barrage of brilliantness, with again the chorus pretty much summing up the skills the man has indeed got: "Your whole plan is to catch a tan in my sunshine/One time 'cause it some kinda wonderful/don't stand there looking stupid, what you wanna do?. He's challenging others to come up to his standard, and doing it in some almighty style.


The Blast comes complete over a fabulous background loop of what can only be described as various synth effects mixed in such a way as to sound like raindrops plopping into puddles. Cool, huh? Next on the list of ultimate dudes appearing on this album is Gill Scott-Heron, probably the actual originator of what hip-hop sounds like today. If you haven't heard him, which is quite likely as he was around in the seventies, pick up some of his stuff and be amazed at the sparse drumbeats, assorted random instrument playing and flowing vocal delivery, at times still with the words sung as opposed to, er, rapped, and how it all sounds so modern. He doesn't actually say anything much here, merely stating that you really should (but fortunately by buying this you have payed the advance) buy a ticket and get on the train (of thought, natch).


Too Late is a lamentation of the current state of rap, a background of suitably mournful wails and panpipes doing what you might expect of such a thing, ie being a background, to some choice lines like (the chorus, again): "Nowadays rap artists coming half-hearted/Commercial like pop or underground like black market/where were you the day hip-hop died/is it too early to mourn, is it too late to ride". Classic! Hi-Tek crafts some quality beats for this, and they match the tone of the song perfectly.


Memories Live sounds like a Groove Armada song. Gentle, pulsating grooves reminiscent of that evil, the chillout song, plod along serenely, and some nice rhymes are dropped of " them teenage dreams of rappin¡¦/writing rhymes on napkins". "Lyrical dexterity" is a phrase that I love to overuse, and it applies here yet again, in his bigging-up (grr) of early memories: "like the first time I saw KRS live rocking it/or heard Resurrection by Common Sense/Dominant in my psyche, I choose my direction like Spike Lee/To speak my life through mics and I never take it lightly". Ha! A finer lyricist you will be hard pressed to find.


Down for the count features Lennox Lewis praising Talib and Hi-TeK by praising himself. Yeah! Up the Brits! "Hi, this is Lennox Lewis (adds emphasis) UNdisputed heavyweight champion of the world, just like Kweli and Hi-Tek". Yeah, damn right he is too. The recurring theme of this album, of their greatness and most other people's inferiority, is present in full force here as well, and carried off stormingly by yet more brilliant wordplay: "Rock the whole world/Like the rolling stone tour, raw/Your wack set is faker than a bomb threat/By a nervous terrorist who so scared his palms wet". I've really got to stop quoting so dang much now, but hopefully you can see why - It's hard to pick just one example that exemplifies the virtuosity that is presented so routinely on this album. Hi-Tek must be given his kudos for this, and the whole thing, by the way. Just a simple drum (well, bass and a few cymbal clashes) beat and an ascending bass line of four different notes comprise the base for this song, with some other random effects thrown in for good measure. They combine to create a barren land to be filled with other people's voices, Rah Digga and the currently-ubiquitous Xzibit donating verses on this.


Soul Rebels sounds a bit like a Cypress Hill song, with its high, picky (yeah, that's right, picky) main guitar riff delving into the lower range at the end and the gruff, De La Soul- provided chorus creating an outwardly friendly song that has some seriously makes-you think-about these peoples¡¦-sanity undercurrents (mm, make sense of that and you've got yourself some money...er, a penny sweet).


Reflection Eternal is (please excuse this) a journey of enlightenment and self-discovery, with a very strong message of not accepting what you've been given, of fighting for the right to, ahem, party. In Talib's words : "In this journey you're the journal, I'm (think we) the journalist/Am I eternal or an eternalist?" Do we decide our own fate, paint our pictures so they're "more colourful than Kelis naked", or just accept that we're all cut-offs from the master plan anyway, and it is the collective, not the individual, who makes the future? (Excepting that a group of individuals ARE a collective). These, and other such intriguing questions, shall be answered in my next outpouring of random thoughts...Anyway, this is most worthy of fifteen squids, so pays yer money and take yer choice. Like, peace, dude. :-)