An Afrocentric hip-hop group formed in 1988, in Atlanta, as an alternative to gangsta rap.

tek's rating: ½

3 Years, 5 Months, and 2 Days in the Life Of...
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This is the group's debut album, released in 1992. The liner notes contain song lyrics. Many of the songs include samples (see Wikipedia for specific examples).

1. "Man's Final Frontier": This starts out sounding staticky, but don't worry, the static soon goes away. There's jazzy horns and record-scratching. I'm not sure I'd call it a song, but it's cool, and a neat introduction to the band.

2. "Mama's Always on Stage": This is rap and blues. Very cool.

3. "People Everyday": This is the second single from the album. I expected it to be my third best remembered song by the band, but listening to it now, all I remember of it is the interpolation of "Everyday People", which is just a minor part of the song. It's mostly... something else. It's not bad.

4. "Blues Happy": This is only 46 seconds.

5. "Mr. Wendal": This is the third single, and my second best remembered song. It's about a homeless man, but really it's about all people. It has a very low-key sound that I like a lot.

6. "Children Play with Earth": This seems to advocate playing with dirt instead of video games or whatever. I'm afraid I can't relate to playing with earth specifically, but as a sort of metaphor for just getting outside and enjoying nature, it's not bad.

7. "Raining Revolution": I couldn't completely follow the point of the song, but I like it. Rain and revolutions, both good things.

8. "Fishin' 4 Religion": This seems to be about the failures of traditional religion, and the desire for a better religion. Or something. Anyway, it's kinda cool.

9. "Give a Man a Fish": This is another song about revolution. It's cool enough.

10. "U": This is apparently about marriage. And stuff. The rapping is good.

11. "Eve of Reality": This is less than two minutes. I'd say it sounds kind of transcendental. Very peaceful and quiet. No lyrics.

12. "Natural": This is a love song, but a spoken bit at the start makes it sound like it's also specifically about monogamy. Which... might mean it's anti-polyamory, which troubles me a bit. But maybe i'm reading too much into it.

13. "Dawn of the Dreads": This seems to be about lust and rejection, but eventually finding someone. I think the title refers to a woman named Dawn, who has dreads, but I'm not entirely sure about that.

14. "Tennessee": This is the first single, and the song I remember best by the band. I also remember it as the theme song from Here and Now. I guess it's my favorite song off the album, mostly because of the chorus. The whole thing is really good, but I'm not sure I'd find it more memorable than the other songs on the album if it hadn't been a single. Anyway, I guess it's sort of about finding your place in the world.

15. "Washed Away": This is the longest track, at 6:22. It's another song about religion, I guess. Sort of.

16. This is an unlisted track, so I'm not sure what to call it. But it seems to be a remix of "People Everyday". And it sounds more familiar to me than track 3, so I like it better. I suspect this could be what I heard on the radio or TV, rather than track 3. It's also like a minute and a half longer than track 3.

So anyway, I only find three songs off the album particularly memorable, but they're all good. And I suspect any of them could have become memorable to me if they'd been played on radio or TV. There's also a lot of social commentary in most of the songs, which is generally cool. Not sure I agree with absolutely all of it, but mostly it's cool.