Monday, Mar. 13, 2000
The Tragic Epilogue
By CHRISTOPHER JOHN FARLEY
A New York City-based group comprising rappers Priest, Beans and Sayyid along with producer Earl Blaize, the Consortium makes music that could best be described as art-school hip-hop. The free-flowing lyrics on this album are inspired by poetry slams; the rhythms are stripped-down and direct, keeping the focus on the words. These songs are, by turns, grandly prophetic, perversely abstract and straight-up street. Far from a tragic epilogue, this is a welcome addition to the growing canon of outsider hip-hop.
--By Christopher John Farley