Reflection Eternal<\/i> is a musical masterpiece. From the Dave Chappelle Nelson Mandela impression to the magnificent storytelling of Kweli on the outro, this is about as thorough a record that is 20 tracks long as you will ever hear. <\/p>\n
The sublime piano-heavy production of Hi Tek is what allows this lengthy debut to be as mesmerizing as an Aronofsky film. I cannot stress enough the importance of continuity when making an album. THAT is what is supposed to make the difference between an album and a mixtape. Instead, many MCs just compile a bunch of lackluster tracks around their handpicked singles and press shuffle. Thank God Talib & Hi Tek decided to make an effort to generate an opus that flows from beginning to end, and Hi Tek gets the majority of the props for that aspect.<\/p>\n
There are countless examples of fantastic albums compiled with 1 MC and 1 producer. From Guru & Premo to The D.O.C. & Dre to Snoop & Dre, to Common & No I.D. to Gift Of Gab & Chief Xcel to Slug & Ant to\u2026you get the point. Quite frankly, I am surprised that more MCs and producers don\u2019t realize that more times than not it is a winning combo. To be honest, although all of Talib\u2019s solo albums have been above average, they Hi Tek\u2019s melodic low-key production style melds so well with Talib\u2019s rapid fire flow that <\/ins>you would have thought they would have continued this combination for This attention to detail is exhibited throughout the entire album and most importantly on \u201cThe Blast\u201d,<\/ins> the only cut where Hi Tek actually spits as well. Now picking your favorite Reflection Eternal <\/i>track is comparable to picking your favorite Ilmatic <\/i>joint, but if I had to choose,<\/ins> it would definitely be \u201cThe Blast.\u201d It is not the best lyrical joint on the album, <\/ins><\/u>but it is the perfect marriage of vocals and production. Hi Tek <\/ins> offers a beautifully constructed track with steady percussion that provides an exquisite backdrop to both Talib\u2019s and Hi Tek\u2019s verse with the incredibly talented Vinia Mojica,<\/ins> allowing her vocals to be peppered in throughout. Believe me,<\/ins> words do not begin to do this track justice.<\/p>\n As a critic,<\/ins> I take the grading scheme very seriously. I am not the type of person to give out As to every good album, only perfect ones,<\/ins> which may only be 10-15 that I\u2019ve heard. Ladies and gentlemen, Reflection Eternal<\/i> is one of those albums; believe me, <\/ins> it’s well worth your money.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":29133,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8115],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-40658","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-talib-kweli-hi-tek","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40658"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/del>haven\u2019t been superior to what<\/ins><\/u><\/del> this duo achieved on Reflection Eternal<\/i>. <\/p>\n <\/del>ever. \u201cAfrica Dream\u201d is the perfect example of this. Talib waits well over a minute to start shreddin\u2019 mics, but once he does,<\/ins> it\u2019s over a completely minimalist beat that allows the listener to latch on to every swift vocal Talib delivers. As Talib goes on,<\/ins> the rhythm section comes in to give the production more of a backbone, yet still it\u2019<\/ins>s subtle. Hi Tek waits until Talib finishes his verse to truly shine with a mixture of horns, scratches and children chanting. People,<\/ins> this is art. Such attention to detail is so painfully rare in hip-hop that this track and album are beyond refreshing.<\/p>\n