Audio By Carbonatix
Advertising Can't Do It Alone
The challenges facing local news organizations are very real. That's why reader support matters more than ever. If you believe independent journalism matters, make a contribution today and help us reach our summer fundraising goal of $10,000 by August 9.
RJD2’s two-track production cameo on Aceyalone’s 2003 album Love & Hate stood among that disc’s high points. Fans have plenty of reason to be geeked for a full-length collab. But while Magnificent City‘s peaks are as good as expected — the Carter-admin gloss-funk of “Fire,” and the gritty Hammond B-3 swing of “Disconnected” — it also features both MC and producer at their most uneven, and RJ isn’t served well doing mimeographed quasi-RZA (“Caged Bird”) or goofball pseudocrunk straight from the ’68-model Moog of Dick Hyman (“Mooore”). Despite his accessibility, Aceyalone stumbles too; it’s one thing to shun the dense logorrhea of modern-day indie rap, but it’s another to drop verses like “I want to love you, ’cause that’s my duty/It’s not your booty, it’s not your beauty” (“Supahero”)
