Remember when the legendary Roots crew front man put Hip Hop on indefinite notice when he released ‘Streams of Thought, Vol. 1’ back in June? Let it be known that this notice is very much still in effect by way of Black Thought’s unrelenting verbal dexterity and consistently educative bars – this time to the brilliant beats of acclaimed music producer Salaam Remi.
While older Hip Hop heads require no further explanation, even the great Salaam Remi needs a quick intro for anyone who’s new to the game. Remi was one of the brains behind the Fugees’ multi-platinum second album, The Score, arguably the single greatest Hip Hop album of 1996. Almost the same energy and deceptively simple beats can be found in Vol. 2, except instead of the Fugees trio, it’s just one beastly rap legend effortlessly riding and rhyming through Remi’s bittersweet boom bap – the unmistakable sound of thunderous wisdom dropped from 33,000 feet in the air, smack dab in the middle of the mumble rap-cradling Internet age.
As per usual, the Roots’ front man lays down yet another stern but digestible lesson in contemporary Hip Hop – with arguably equal emphasis on both lyrical content and verbal musicality. Unparalleled, head-bopping dexterity is still the name of the game, a crystal clear message which the man expertly and angrily enunciates through all nine tracks, his singular rapping style making even the blackest thoughts in the album flow like savory butter – even during the album’s grim opening bars in Fentanyl. Alongside Black Thought’s somehow soothing rage-rapping, Remi himself shows zero signs of slowing down, overtly intent on holding a modern, soulful, and 90s boom bap tributary masterclass of his own – most apparent in the funky-heavy New Grit as well as Streets in which the dynamically talented Tish Hyman promptly takes charge of delivering an ear-worm of a hook.
As for where to score a physical copy of Vol. 2, there’s no news yet. Anyone who’s surprised at this is either not paying attention or just mostly offline. At a time when even the IFPI openly reports that 86% of listeners eschew physical CDs in favor of streaming, most EP and album releases are rightly happening online, sometimes with zero warning. At least Black Thought had the courtesy to announce this release two weeks prior – who knows when Kendrick Lamar or Frank Ocean will suddenly drop another game-changing album on our heads. Whether you want to surprise, educate, or simply blow your audience’s minds, such unquestionably baller moves wouldn’t be possible without the Internet. And it seems that nearly the entire entertainment industry is taking the cue. Just this year, the iconic, 66-year-old British music journalism magazine NME completely stopped physically printing its issues to focus on its online presence.
Meanwhile, when Slotsource released its own succinct but comprehensive guide to online casinos in Canada, it practically revealed and encouraged the adult gaming industry’s plans to focus on web and mobile-based developments. And seeing how web-enabled entertainment business models have been faring more than well, with popular streaming service Spotify reportedly being worth upwards of $26 billion today – sticking to online promotions make sense. It might be the one thing that old school Hip Hop vanguards, adult gaming websites, and iconic magazines from the 1900s all have in common. Besides, after listening to Black Thoughts’ inevitably smooth and troubling Vol. 2 verses, having a material copy of the album in your hands will be the last thing on your mind.
