Prolyphic and Reanimator

The Ugly Truth

(Strange Famous)

US release date: 6 May 2008

UK release date: Available as import

by Filmore Mescalito Holmes

Sage Francis’s label takes another big step towards becoming an irrefutable indie hip-hop superpower with this inspired collaboration. Francis himself introduced top shelf Chicago beatsmith Reanimator to smooth Rhode Island lyricist Prolyphic some three years ago. Gradually, with Reanimator taking time to provided the finest instrumentals on Sage’s own albums, The Ugly Truth took shape. The organic nature with which the album evolved is written all over it. The beats are glowing with live instrument samples and boom-bap drums, easily on par with the finest yet released by the man, while the words glide as if born to those sounds. Thematically, Prolyphic runs through feelings of Western alienation, severe political mismanagement, and the farcical wrath that gun totting 50 Cent and Ca$his caricatures have inflicted on rap, among other instances of inequality and poor social graces. It’s as if Dr. Dre remembered his roots and Eminem grew a human conscience. The world is now a slightly better place.

Prolyphic And Reanimator - Survived Another Winter
— 5 May 2008

TODAY ON POPMATTERS
Columns | recent
Suffragette City: The Secret Life of Bees
Rabble Without a Cause: The Manitobian Candidate
Events | recent | archive
:. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds — 28.September.08: Chicago, IL
Books | recent | archive
:. When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson
:. Electronic Tribes: The Virtual Worlds of Geeks, Gamers, Shamans, and Scammers by Tyrone L. Adams and Stephen A. Smith, Editors
RECENT MUSIC

In bold are PopMatters Picks, the best in new music.