X-Clan “Mainstream Outlawz” Album Review
X-Clan is one of those groups that always makes me realize how far my musical tastes vary from the norm. I guess I realized this back in ’07, after I gave “Return From Mecca” five stars while pretty much everybody else dissed it. Two years later, all I can find is negative reviews of X-Clan’s “Mainstream Outlawz,” yet I think this album is super dope – and has been bumping on my iPod for over two weeks now.

Why I Like This Album?

1. Brother J is the fucking man – A couple of my dogs clown on me about this from time to time, saying I’m Brother J’s biggest fan. And I can’t really deny that. I don’t know what it is, but I could sit and listen to J flow all day long. Something about the manner in which he wraps words around beats is just ridiculous to me; I once characterized the style as “quick-paced baritone vocals with a complex rhyming scheme that uses syllable accentuations to enhance flow and lyrical emphasis” – and I stick by that. In fact, if I could rap, I’m pretty sure it would sound something like Brother J.

2. It’s like a fourteen track cipher – I ain’t going to lie to you, “Mainstream Outlawz” isn’t quite the concept album that “Return From Mecca” was. Not as many tracks have a clear and specific purpose or theme, and the verses aren’t as easily quotable. Instead, what makes this album dope is its spontaneity and hard-hitting lyrical attacks, which when combined, create the feel of one of those old-school conscious ciphers where cats are just spitting hot shit over hot beats and working off of crowd interaction. Whatever it is, it definitely works for me.

One great example of this cipher feel can be seen with the following verse from The Wanna Know:

Conscious writing pounding rap bosses/
Lending enlighting minds weed out all my losses/
Hip-Hop is bugged out straight rapper ho biz/
Ain’t nothing changed son it is what it is/
I don’t rap with a vengeance I’m spitting the outer limits/
Guerilla stank bill pure roots with no gimmicks/
Before zeitgeist before Dianetics /
Ancestors stalk tones you translate phonetically/
I’m alphabetically the symbol for justice/
Speaking the king’s language but I slang it for substance/
Nothing but the rawness, treating this cordless/
Like a prison for life for the mentally jaundice/
With flawless precision/
Statement for my mission is one love/
Digging indeed with long gloves/

3. It’s different – One review I read claimed that X-Clan has “survived on a steady supply of Zapp and Parliament samples,” then seemed to question why the group strayed from that sound in “Mainstream Outlawz.” I don’t know about y’all, but I don’t want to hear the same thing over and over again. I thought Brother J redefined his sound and flow nicely over the new beats, and enjoyed the fresh vibe the group presented in the new album. With this in mind, I think I understand what X-Clan was trying to say with the title “Mainstream Outlawz” – that they’re going to rebel against the mainstream by doing what the mainstream doesn’t do – trying something new.

4. This is my subway album – I come across a perfect subway album every once in a while: an album that seems to perfectly fit my daily 45 minute train ride into Midtown. I put it on as I’m leaving the crib, and it is finishing up right about the time I’m walking into the workplace. It’s important to have a good album for this time of the day, to keep rush hour traffic and a packed Q or B train from driving you insane.

Overall: Pick up this album. While it may not be X-Clan’s greatest work to date, “Mainstream Outlawz” takes what I feel is a refreshing direction into a new-school cipher-ish type of hip-hop album, created of music that is consistent and fun while remaining conscious and unique. And during a month-long period during which I had trouble finding good shit to listen to, X-Clan’s “Mainstream Outlawz” definitely stood apart from the rest. Peace.

Album Track Listing:

1. Down By Law
2. Night 2 Day
3. Thru My Eyez feat. Tony Henry, Bun B
4. Primetime Lyrics
5. The Lord Spits
6. Pipers Poetry
7. Orientation
8. Still Up In The Game feat. The Smuggalaz
9. They Wanna Know
10. Do It Like You?! feat. Bobby Fine
11. Keys To Ur City – Feat Medusa
12. Wiz Degrees
13. Armageddon DNA feat. Supernatural, Phoenix Orion
14. Stop, Look, Recognize

This week’s track of the week is Primetime Lyrics by X-Clan. This is one of my favorite tracks from the group’s new album “Mainstream Outlaw,” which I’ve been bumping all weekend. Click below to listen:

[See post to listen to audio]

The foundation for “Mainstream Outlawz” was built over a year long period with Brother J venturing into the heart of Houston, TX to re-ignite hip hop’s flame. The move brought out bouts of intense creativity bolstered by Brother J and his collaborators love for music.  

Joining X-Clan on their quest to bring hip hop back to the roots of the genre with the aid some of the industry’s biggest lyrical assassins including Bun B of UGK, Medusa and Supanatural. In their collaborations these artists have proudly banded together with X-Clan to proudly wave the flag for hip hop, while others would rather plan the genre’s funeral.

“We urge our listeners to stop complaining and start listening, because hip hop is alive and well. It’s time for the underground to take the spotlight,” says X-Clan mastermind Brother J. “If you don’t take the time to learn the full spectrum of hip hop, you can’t keep complaining that the game is tainted and off track. There are enough active artists out here that are keeping it real in the name of music and not fad. There are some independent groups that deserve respect for their grind and we are one of them.”

X-Clan, one of the genres most powerful and influential hip hop crews ever, returned in 2007 after nearly a decade-long hiatus with their long awaited comeback album “Return From Mecca”. The SOURCE Magazine proclaimed that “Brother J shines as he nourishes with vanglourious music,” while the Los Angeles Times said the album was “a rare rap ‘Return’ well worth the wait.” The critically acclaimed album saw the group dropping their unique brand of ancestral wisdom and culture to a whole new generation of hip hop fans on sold out tours with Public Enemy, Damian ‘Jr. Gong’ Marley and Jurassic 5.

Source:
Hip Hop Press

Brand new music video for X-Clan’s Prison, a great track of last year’s spectacular “Return From Mecca.” Prison features American Jazz artist Christian Scott, and is a critique of our country’s prison-industrial complex. X-Clan is reportedly preparing a new album titled “Mainstream Outlaw” due for release later in 2008.

“We have been working on a new album, along with a new DVD release that starts to explain some of the history of X-Clan,” says group founding father Brother J, offering a glimpse into what the hip hop legends have cooking for 2008.  

“This is one of the first DVD’s that will bring some of the history down as we start to gather some of the original members to tell their story. We are getting some things in line that are of the master caliber we want to present. Give peace and blessings to everyone. Respect.”

X-Clan, one of the genres most powerful and influential hip hop crews ever, returned in 2007 after nearly a decade-long hiatus with their Suburban Noize debut, “Return From Mecca“. SOURCE Magazine’s review of the album stated “Brother J shines as he nourishes with vanglourious music,” while the Los Angeles Times proclaimed, “This a rare rap ‘Return’ well worth the wait.” The critically acclaimed album saw the group dropping their unique brand of ancestral wisdom and culture to a whole new generation of hip hop fans on sold out tours with Public Enemy, Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley and Jurassic 5.

X-Clan have also announced a headlining performance in San Francisco, CA on Feb 15th, 2008 with Humboldt County’s finest hip hop duo Potluck.

“We are definitely looking forward to one of the first headlining dates of the Millennium Cipher version of X-Clan. We’ve been holding it down for a couple of years now, supporting some powerful movements and we’re looking forward to breaking out in the Bay area,” says Brother J. “The Bay area was responsible for helping to break the original ‘To the East, Blackwards’ and ‘Xodus’ records back in the day, so we are glad to return on this level. We want to give a big ups to all the support acts (Lifesavas and Potluck) and we look forward to all the Bay area X-Clan heads coming out and having a good time.”

X CLAN AND PUBLIC ENEMY TOUR:
Feb 15 San Francisco @ Mezzanine w/ Potluck

This is that first list – the overall top picks for 2007. The list below represents the best albums hip-hop had to offer in the year 2007 from what we consider major record labels – whether mainstream, underground or independent. We highly recommend checking them all out!

The Best Hip-Hop Albums of 2007:

1. Blu & Exile – Below The Heavens
2. K-OS – Atlantis: Hymns for Disco
3. X-Clan – Return From Mecca
4. Aesop Rock – None Shall Pass
5. C Rayz Walz – Chorus Rhyme
6. Little Brother – Getback
7. Talib Kweli – Eardrum
8. El-P – I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead
9. Brother Ali – The Undisputed Truth
10. Wise Intelligent – The Talented Timothy Taylor
11. NYOIL – Hood Treason
12. Public Enemy – How You Sell Soul To A Soulless People Who Sold Their Souls???
13. Common – Finding Forever
14. Sage Francis – Human the Death Dance
15. KRS-One & Marley Marl – Hip Hop Lives

In addition, we’d like to make a special shout out to Kanye West’s “Graduation,” which didn’t make the list simply because it made everyone else’s and we’re trying to hip y’all to some different shit, and One Be Lo’s “The R.E.B.I.R.T.H.” which didn’t make the list because it dropped after this list was compiled and will definitely be among the top picks for 2008.

If you haven’t done so already, pick up each album on this list. They are all examples of dope conscious hip-hop! Click here to view our list of the top 10 albums from minor independent labels or unsigned artists. Happy new year and PEACE!

X-Clan ”Return From Mecca” Album Review
Every once and awhile, an album comes along that makes me remember exactly why I started my own hip-hop website. X-Clan’s “Return From Mecca” is that album. I used to get so angry when brilliant albums got underrated by reviewers, dissed among fans and ignored by radio stations, so I started writing my own reviews to give hip-hoppers the real. And the real is … you should ignore the not-so-favorable Internet reviews on this album, because “Return From Mecca” is a classic, and the best hip-hop album of the year thus far.

Old Man Shit
One reviewer said X-Clan was behind the times [1], while another somehow found the album to be pop-influenced [2]. One fan said he didn’t give a shit about X-Clan, while another felt their music was no more than “old man shit” [3]. Other than that, the majority of so-called hip-hop websites didn’t even review the album, and I’m sure that if I did listen to the radio, I wouldn’t hear any X-Clan songs playing.

Maybe I’m becoming an old man. After all, I will be twenty-nine in April, which from my perspective makes me somewhat of an old-school hip-hopper in that I was around back before this bling-thug-gangster shit came around. Or maybe I find myself so starved for conscious, intelligent and introspective hip-hop that I’ll like anything with a positive or educational vibe. I don’t know man … but when I put “Return From Mecca” in my CD player, all I hear is dope beats, dope rhymes and intellectual topics. And to me, that’s what good hip-hop is all about.

While the album’s production does have somewhat of an old-school vibe, with samples, snare beats combined with heavy base lines, and some of that battle-flavored street party-ish DJ scratching, it is modernized with the addition of melodically-infused instrumentation consisting of several varieties of keys, strings and horns that seem to be created without the use of modern day computerized recording techniques. As expected, the album is intellectually-based, covering topics ranging from society and politics to self-worth and reflection. And I don’t know if Brother J has been doing breathing exercises or what, being that he must be in his forties by now, but he carries the album on his back lyrically, spitting like a new-school MC and holding ground with the likes of KRS-One, Chali 2Na and Abstract Rude, cats who represent the tip of the iceberg in terms of microphone control.

Honestly, I haven’t been able to stop listening to this album since I got it in the mail a week ago. So why is it that so many people refuse to acknowledge the brilliance in X-Clan’s music? Well, after listening to the album a couple times, I think I’ve figured it out. Maybe it’s because most people aren’t trying to hear what X-Clan is teaching.

Knowledge vs. Material
If there’s one topic that seems to stand out among the myriad issues discussed by Brother J throughout the course of “Return From Mecca,” it would have to be the internal battle of knowledge vs. material. As many of us know, we live in a world plagued by greed and financial aspirations. In light of this, Brother J often challenges his listener to recognize the importance of having wisdom over having riches in life.

You would think that hip-hop, a culture which gave birth to such philosophical knowledge as “Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems,” wouldn’t be so concerned with bling or diamond-crested grills or fancy cars. Unfortunately, this is not the case. We seem to act like money is something that brings about happiness and self-worth, while wisdom is something that brings nothing tangible in life.

The whole debate makes me think about my man Socrates, the Greek philosopher widely credited with laying the foundation for Western philosophical thought. In Plato’s The Apology, Socrates was sentenced to death basically for questioning the hypocrisies of the ruling class and proving to the youth that the self-proclaimed intelligent upper class really knew nothing at all. I guess this pissed them off, so they decided to hang him. Their mentality was probably not too different from that of the upper-level Los Angeles police officers who reportedly played a role in the deaths of Christopher Wallace and Tupac Shakur.

In any case, before Socrates was put to death, he started contemplating the possibilities of consciousness after life, and came to two possible conclusions. First, death could be a state of “utter nothingness and unconsciousness” similar to being asleep without dreaming. Or second, death could be a “change and migration of the soul from this world to another” similar to what we refer to today as Heaven. Now if death was the first, Socrates believed that to be an “unspeakable gain” as eternity would pass in a single unconscious night. And if death was the second, Socrates felt that nothing could be better, as he would be given the opportunity to question and learn from the great minds that came before him, such as Orpheus, Musaeus, Hesiod or Homer.

Now whichever it is, having a lot of money in life ain’t helping you with either dogg. But wisdom and knowledge would undoubtedly help if death is indeed a migration to another realm of consciousness. Imagine being able to kick it with Biggie, Pac, J Dilla, Jam Master Jay or the recently and sadly deceased Professor X of the X-Clan in the afterlife. Imagine what insight they could give. You don’t honestly think any of those cats would be impressed with the jewelry or large bank account you left in the real world, do you? Nah, dogg . they’d probably want to know what was going on, what you did with your life, or what you learned from living. And if you had nothing intelligent to say, they wouldn’t even give you the time of day.

Now I ain’t trying to act all superior, because everybody needs money. So by all means get that. But realize that overcoming the battle of knowledge versus material and using your time to gain some kind of wisdom while you’re here could be the difference between a positive and a negative eternity. And I don’t know about you, but I definitely ain’t giving up my chance to kick it with the great minds of our generation for some bullshit material possessions.

So what’s my point? Read something motherfuckers! Get involved in our nation and our world. Bump some of that hip-hop that you can learn something from. And pick up a copy of X-Clan’s exceptional comeback album “Return From Mecca.” You never know, you might just learn something that could save you. Peace.