Rating:
Review Date: April 6, 2009
Website: X-Clan Website
Label: Suburban Noize Records

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