Artist: Mike Ladd
Date Released: February 8, 2005
Label: Thirsty Ear
Produced By:
Tracklisting:
- Field Work (The Ethnographer's Daughter)
- The French Dig Latinos, Too
- In Perspective
- Shake It
- Worldwide Shrinkwrap (Contact Zones)
- Back at Ya
- Appropriated Metro
- Blonde Negress
- Sam and Mili Dine Out
- Nancy and Carl Go Christmas Shopping
- Sleep Patterns of Black Expatriots Circa 1960
Review[]
I can guarantee you that the hip-hop community will not embrace this album, though it is the brainchild of a Bronx-based MC/producer. Then again, I doubt that Mike Ladd had really set out to impress that particular community. Inspired by Petrine Archer-Straw’s Negrophilia, the album of the same name does however fit comfortably in the progressive jazz catalog over at Thirsty Ear. Combining a wide array of musical influence, which include but are not limited to avant-garde and contemporary jazz, hip-hop, French, Latin and African music, Ladd has composed an extremely intelligent and cerebral piece of art. Every so often, Ladd does pick up the mic, but his voice is always presented as another instrument, interweaving with the music rather than overshadowing it. His flow resembles very few, but Saul Williams immediately comes to mind. To say that this is an interesting album really sells it short, and I can’t remember the last time I heard a bassoon sound so soulful. I would like to see Ladd hook up with someone like El-P; now that would be progressive hip-hop. Mpardaiolo