"We gonna take over Google. I'm gonna come up with other shit called Giggle." This hilarious little ditty finishes the intro track and segues into a flashy and self-aggrandizing second track. What a fun way to start an unbelievable album. Talib Kweli's Gutter Rainbows is one of those records people like me have been waiting for. It unstales hip hop. It's like a punch in the face from a 6'9'' 260 pound guy reminding you how great hip hop can be. I'm so glad I started my morning with this 50 minute treat. It's a great album to get into, to really indulge your inner hip hop soul. There's something appreciable about a person playing a real bass, acoustic drum/electric kit, keyboard, and guitar to go along with the electronic parts. It makes the beat sound so much better; it's a naturally-felt rhythm that computers can't capture. In On One uses a rhyme about Kurt Vonnegut. So Low uses as a beat Sometimes by Noisettes, which I put up in a prior post. He mentions novelist Paulo Coelho in Mr. International. He references Voltaire in Cold Rain. Tater Tot is probably one of the scariest songs I've heard since something from Immortal Technique. Yeah, by now you get the feel of the album and don't need me to describe it. Each song is completely different from the next, and it would take forever to go through all the different feels, and beats, and bass lines, and guitar parts, and organ parts, and features...
Easily a 4.8/5. Buy this album ASAP. Favorite songs: Gutter Rainbows, So Low, Mr. International ("Hey how you doin' / We all gonna be like a bunch of little Fonzies / Who's Fonzie? / He's coooool." Thank you Henry Winkler), Wait For You (an awesome groovy jazz feel), Ain't Waiting, Tater Tot, How You Love Me, and Self Savior.
Best, Jonathan
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