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  Release Date: June 27, 2006
  Website: 7L & Esoteric Website
  Label: Babygrande Records

7L & Esoteric “A New Dope” Album Review
I’m a big fan of the old-school. It’s what I came up on. It’s what made me love hip-hop in the first place. That’s why it’s hard for me to say that I don’t really like a lot of old-school artists today. For some reason, as hip-hop has evolved over the past twenty years, old-school rappers tend to sound ancient to me, and it’s often hard to listen to my old favorites who have stayed the same while the art form has just gotten better and better.

Nonetheless, there are a select few rappers who have managed to stay on top over time and continued to make innovative and evolving music. 7L & Esoteric is one such group. After more than one decade, the two old-schoolers continue to make good hip-hop without selling out or coming wack, and “A New Dope” is the latest example. The album is a huge shift in direction from the group’s previous efforts, and shows a courageous attempt to redefine good hip-hop away from the mainstream’s commonly accepted idea of the art form.

Hip-Hop Evolutionism
Theories of change exist in pretty much every major field of social and academic study. While some believe that things are fixed and stagnant, others feel that certain things change as natural yet unplanned outgrowths of those that existed before. In the early 19th century, theories of sociocultural evolutionismwere developed around the belief that organisms are intrinsically bound to improve themselves through progressive changes. In other words, societies and cultures change naturally based on technologies, social structures and many other values of society. So wouldn’t it be understandable to think that hip-hop music and culture would evolve as well?

Unfortunately, this is not often the case. Making a change in hip-hop is not an easy thing to do these days. The corporations that control the business of hip-hop have figured out what sells, and push it out over and over again. Therefore, many old-school artists, tired of the struggle associated with keeping it real, succumb to record company demands and follow their pre-set marketing schemes.

For their latest project, 7L & Esoteric did the exact opposite by experimenting with techniques quite different than what’s considered hot today, by taking an alternative approach to their music, and by creating a new sound unlike anything I’ve ever heard. It’s nothing you’ll ever hear on the radio, or see on MTV, but is truly representative of real hip-hop.

So support change and progress in hip-hop by checking out 7L & Esoteric’s “A New Dope.” It’s new. It’s different. It’s dope. What else can I say?