Quest is one of those hip-hop artists that you just love to follow because he's evolving with each and every new track. You get to see him grow in front of your eyes.
At only 20 years old, Quest has taken the hip-hop blogosphere by storm. And while he teased his following for more than a year with release date delays and such, his album The Reason: A Defense Mechanism was finally released last month as a free download. And it was most definitely worth the wait.
All in all, The Reason is a collection of 16 dark tracks that seems almost like a big middle finger to those who expect him to conform to either mainstream demands or the underground hip-hop label.
The album kicks off with the ominous "This Became The Reason" intro, courtesy of Palm Beach poet and singer Neopopsicle, who also contributes a separate interlude and appears on a handful of tracks.
Highlights include two tracks that were released this past summer, months before the actual album came out. The One Republic-sampling "We're Going Down" and the very unique, unusual "Ambitions In The Sky" both hint at an artist who's unafraid to take risks.
The only downfall might be Quest's decision to work with a limited production team, giving the album a very uniform sound. That's definitely great at times. But the listener is often left wanting more from Quest. Maybe more upbeat backdrops with varied BPMs could have killed any hints of monotony.
Nevertheless, The Reason is a great listen and worth the download. At the very least, it'll serve as a great point of comparison as Quest continues his evolution.
Download: Quest's The Reason: A Defense Mechanism
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