Sophomore Jinx

Album Review

The title and cover image of the second Visionaries project are suitable in many ways, as the learning theme is kept up throughout the length of the album, as the crew delivers one of the most intelligent and thought provoking pieces of work that hip-hop has seen in quite some time. When thinking intelligent and educational rap releases of this era, one has to think of Dead Prez's Let's Get Free and Talib Kweli's Reflection Eternal, and fans of both of these shouldn't be disappointed with the Visionaries. The lyrics on this album promote not just being the baddest MC, but being a living piece of a hip-hop culture web that's been growing for so many years. From living life at it's potential to not listening to criticism to mastering self, it's all here on this 19-track recording. Most times it seems like the lyrics were written in a spoken word style of writing, which probably isn't far from the truth as 2Mex has released Words Knot Music, a solo spoken word album with no music at all, and also includes most of the crew throughout.