Rating:
  Review Date: February 19, 2008
  Website: Akrobatik Website
  Label: Fat Beats

Akrobatik “Absolute Value” Album Review
If an album was rated by its guest appearances, Akrobatik’s “Absolute Value” would probably be the top album of the year. After all, it’s highly unlikely that anyone, especially an underground rapper, could get more dope hip-hop artists on a record at one time than Akrobatik did here. From Chuck D of Public Enemy and B-Real of Cypress Hill to Talib Kweli, Mr. Lif, Big Pooh and Phonte of Little Brother, “Absolute Value” is stacked with classic hip-hop artists.

Yet Akrobatik does a good job distinguishing himself from all these featured artists. The majority of “Absolute Value” consists of enjoyably fun tracks in which Akrobatik shows off his creative and unique rhyme skills.

My favorite head nodders include Soul Glo, which relies on a horn and piano-riddled funk beat, Absolute Value, in which Ak is on some of that straight in-your-face rhyme shit, Black Hell Breaks Loose, which is arguably the banger of the album, and Beast Mode, which brings back that Perceptionists vibe with Ak and Lif trading verses over a grimy beat. Throw in certified collaborative bumps such as A To The K featuring B-Real, Put Ya Stamp On It featuring Talib Kweli, and Be Prepared featuring Little Brother, and it becomes difficult to find one track not worthy of mention on the entire album.

Lyrically, Ak definitely continues his streak of spitting conscious lyrics from somewhat of an common man’s perspective. Although I always seem to hear people classifying Akrobatik as one of those preachy-style rappers, I find him humble and intellectual on the mic, and continue to enjoy his trademark mixture of battle-style vocals with socially and politically conscious lyrics.

One of the traits I’ve always admired in Akrobatik is his ability to talk about negativity yet still interpret things in a positive light. This can be seen in the opening verse of Rain, in which Ak drops a the following verse about overcoming adversity:

When it rains it pours/
Globalization putting poison in the stores/
Title waves washing good people off the shores/
Sometimes I feel like I can’t take it no more/
I seen white and black ladies with crack babies/
In fact maybe selling them to get that buzz back baby/
Boy is in Iraq and shady dealings got him here in the first place/
They put us on the front lines to lessen our birth rate/
The children of the poor fight the wars/
And when that shit is over, they’ll be the broke ones in the stores/
And even though we all different/
The little issues in life are seeming much less significant/
So when the rain comes down on you/
My question is ‘What you gonna do?’/
From where I stand you can fold your hand and let your world crumble/
Or fight back and keep it on the humble/
I know my choice/

Another trait I’ve always admired about Akrobatik is his ability to place himself in the shoes of another person and rap from that person’s perspective. This is exactly what he does in Kindred, with Chuck D inserting that conscious Public Enemy vibe by speaking in between verses. Ak’s first verse in this song come from the mouth of an African slave in America, and the following verse from a husband and father trapped in the wake of Hurricane Katrina:

I’m on my rooftop sick and thirsty asking God for mercy/
Please spare my wife – she’s only thirty/
School buses float atop murky waters/
Could they’ve used to at least evacuate our sons and daughters?/
We sleep because we have no choice/
Dehydrated and then we can’t scream for help because we have no voice/
Crying for what the helicopters never dropped us/
The stench of bodies in piles is evident for miles/
Broke with little hope, laid off with little income/
Ghetto life is no joke – I’m broke and then some/
My son is on his stomach, body riddled with heavy shakes/
I guess we now know what happens when the levee breaks/

I’d have to say that my only complaint with the album is that it doesn’t have more of these first-person narrative verses. Nonetheless, Akrobatik’s “Absolute Value” is an impressive release from one of hip-hop’s most honorable and respected underground emcees. If you don’t pick up a copy of this one, you’re missing out homie. Peace.

Related:
If you’re feeling this album, you should check out other Def Jux and Fat Beats artists. The Perceptionists “Black Dialogue” features Akrobatik with Mr. Lif. Lif released his latest solo album, “Mo Mega’“, in 2006. Other dope Def Jux albums include Aesop Rock “None Shall Pass” and El-P “I’ll Sleep Better When You’re Dead”, while other dope Fat Beats albums include Wildchild “Jack of All Trades” and OneBeLo “The R.E.B.I.R.T.H.”

Album Track Listing:

1. A To The K (w/ B-Real)
2. Soul Glo
3. Put Ya Stamp On It (w/ Talib Kweli)
4. Step It Up
5. Rain (w/ Brenna Gethers)
6. Be Prepared (w/ Little Brother)
7. Absolute Value
8. Black Hell Breaks Loose (w/ Willie Evans Jr. & Therapy)
9. Kindred (w/ Chuck D & Brenna Gethers)
10. Front Steps Pt. II (Tough Love)
11. Beast Mode (w/ Mr. Lif)
12. If We Can’t Build (w/ Bumpy Knuckles)
13. Ak B. Nimble
14. Back Home To You