Disco de Dilated Peoples: “Neighborhood Watch”

Reviewing this one should be pretty cut and dry.......you'll like this album if you're a Dilated fan. If you're not a fan and you're buying this just for the singles, you'll be disappointed. Simple as that. Basically, this album is consistant with their other two.....almost consistant to a fault. They're victims of their own proficiency and it's starting to make them predictable. You can take their last album and get the same vibe from it and that's not good in this business. Don't get me wrong, I love Dilated, but this CD isn't the outstanding effort that these other reviewers want to make it. There are definitely some suspect joints, but most of the album is solid. Iriscience stepped his rap game up, but Evidence hasn't. And that lack of improvement makes a lot of these songs skippable. It's still a solid effort though and the beats are hot. Like I said in the beginning, if you're a Dilated fan, go get it. If you're not, you should get the first two albums before you listen to this. Or go cop the singles.

Personal Favorites: Marathon, Who's Who, This Way feat. Kanye West, Love & War (from NBA Live 2004), DJ Babu In Deep Concentration (My Favorite), and Poisonous feat. Devin The Dude

Dialated People's quality overall has dropped a bit, mainly cause of Evidence's flow, and certain production on some songs. But it is still a very good album. Irascience is still a mad lyrical genius, but overall on this album you can tell they branched out they're style a bit to appeal to more mainstream listeners. They're not exactly trying to sell out, although it looked like it with Kanye West on a track. Even so, the song with Kanye West is one of the best on the album, same with Love and War, Marathon, and Posionous. Even so, they are still a fresh group with a much better message than most mainstream rappers, which gives them the same approach towards their carrers as Kanye West and the Roots.

In otherwords, a good album, not their best, but Dialated will still be around for a while.

It's hard not to love this cd.

If you've heard their previous two cd's (The Platform and Expansion Team) you'll notice the slight difference in tempo and subject matter. Believe me it does nothing to diminish their talents.

Lilting beats, Divine use of the turntables, Lyrics that catch your attention and don't just fade into the music but actully work with it, and in the case of "Big Business" force you to listen and take notice.

What else can I say? Dilated Peoples true to form manages to throw out the same great intensity and skill in almost every song on this release, they just keep getting better. I've listened to this cd non-stop since I bought it the day after it came out and I couldn't imagine getting tired of it anytime in the near future.

If you buy it you'll love it.

Dilated Peoples latest album "Neighborhood Watch" (2004) is a solid fourteen track release. What first attracted me to this release was watching the video for the amazing single "This Way" feat. Kayne West, an exceptional cut dedicated to the late JMJ. This to me is one of the most powerful tracks I have come across this year, positive with first class beats, chorus and lyrics. Another outstanding track for me is "Tryin to Breathe", the lyrics on this one go deep. Devin the Dude drops in for "Poisonous" a track about a woman on a rampage. On "Reach Us" Dilated talks about there craft, life, change, and there fans. Dilated Peoples show there love for there crew and family and dedication to stay focused on the memorable "Love and War", then Alchemist laces Dilated with another standout beat on "World on Wheels". The variety of memorable beats are a real highlight of this release, unfortantely I dont always find the Dilated MC's entertaining on the MIC, while there are no tracks I would label bad there are a number that fall under skip material for me. Overall though there are a number of premium tracks which make "Neighborhood Watch" an album definetly worth checking out for Dilated Peoples fans, and for those who enjoy a group that thrives on being experimental and innovative.

Judging by the reviews, it's clear that most people think that Neighborhood Watch isn't as good as The Platform or Expansion Team. That's true, but that doesn't mean this album is bad, either. Another thing I noticed is that a lot of people say that Rakaa (Iriscience) is a better rapper that Evidence. I think that's also true, but it's not that Evidence can't rap; it's just that his rapping is decent while Rakaa's rapping is GREAT.

Anyway, there are several gems to find on this album. Many of the songs are still politically conscious, like "Tryin' to Breathe", "Big Business" and the title track. And "World On Wheels" has good lyrics and a nice beat provided by Alchemist, which leads me to another point. Production is unsurprisingly solid on here. It's mostly overseen by Babu, as usual (check out "DJ Babu In Deep Concentration"), but when other producers like Kanye West ("This Way") come aboard, things are still impressive.

Some fans may worry when they find that some of the other songs aren't so politically conscious, but they still impress. "Closed Session" has Planet Asia, Defari and Phil Da Agony joining the group for a nice posse cut that shows they haven't lost their underground roots. The aforementioned "This Way" is ridiculously catchy, and the made-for-radio song "Who's Who" is better than I thought it would be.

While I can do without the filler track "Poisonous", this is still a solid album from Dilated Peoples. And we all know that rap records as a whole have been disappointing for a while now, so if you want to hear some good rap, add this to your collection.

Anthony Rupert