The Blaxploitation Sessions
Label: Shaman Work
Length: LP
Media: CD
Format: Album
WorkNameSort: Blaxploitation Sessions, The
It’s not exactly like the ’70s cinematic Afro-tainment movement was a shining beacon of baadasssss cultural progress, but grindhouse-style B-pictures like Sweet Sweetback, Foxy Brown and pretty much anything with Jim Kelly in it still hold a tender lovin’ place in the hearts of countless video store geeks and Wu-Tang affiliates. So why this narrowly defined obsession with super-stylish private dicks that strut with their own wah-wah theme songs is invoked in the title of the most limp, lifeless hip-hop release of the year is beyond baffling. An uncanny knack for the ill-advised reference permeates this disc. The monotonous ‘Hip Hop Rwandaâ?� introduces the passionate lecture against what producer/MC ID 4 Windz considers to be fake hip-hop that continues throughout the album until the last Big Daddy Kane sample is exhausted. Alas, their titular comparison crumbles when ‘Hip Hop is killing the ‘real’â?� fails to elicit the same visceral response as, say, African sectarian genocide. And while Scienz bemoans the cultural and intellectual divide in their beloved genre, tracks like ‘Eatin’ Watermelonâ?� ‘ which kicks off with some soft-shoe jive and hurls ‘Houseâ?� and ‘Samboâ?� slurs with effortless aplomb ‘ can’t help things.
This article appears in Aug 30 – Sep 5, 2006.