peace, first of all, Soulaquarians are way above Swiss Beats, Rodney (how much money we makin???) Jerkins, and Rocafella... Prince (well that my friend is a different story all together) however, the music (in my opinion) is great, but I know exactly what money is saying, it's bland. If this makes any sense, it's funky, but bland... I don't get the same feeling from recorded Roots material as I do from their live sets... but even that isn't no where near as edgy as it used to be case in point (outside of Hub's solos) the solo's are garbage, sorry to say it like that, but it is such a insult to any musician. How many times can Kamal play "the Peanuts', too wack. However, the Soulaquarians as a whole are dope, (88 is ill, point fucking blank, talk about taking a back seat to your man...)... it's just that for all the hype I hear about Common's album (bland), D'Angelo's album (bland), Things Fall Apart (bland), but they all have there moments... if there is any comparison to Prince, it would have to be after the Lovesexy album moving forward...
to even assume any one of these cats has made any album comparable to Prince from Dirty Mind up to LoveSexy is foolish (ok... I'll give you Around the World in A Day, but not the original version...smile). Me and some music heads had this discussion the other night, and it ran parallel to Tribe Called Quest, Post Umma or Pre Umma, it was obvious we went with the Pre Umma, why, too much talent in one room... I mean, if Tribe would have continued with just Ali and Tip on production, I mean it's obvious Midnight Marauders was their zenith correct??? Look at it like this, one the only reason why people can take such a critical look at their work is because of the critical stance taken by Quest at Prince (Rappages article), very well written, thought provoking, but also opened the game up all the way across the board (hey if you can critique Prince, then fall in line...). There is no argument that these cats are leading the pack to some degree, but please everyone, could you just let JD's nuts have some air, a little light please. I mean, money is dope (on production, had his moments on the mic) but it is obvious of his overwhelming impact on the rest of the OK squad. It would have been nice to see the direction of Questlove, even Quest, D, and Common would have taken, not necessarily without each other (we all need family) but on their own... somewhat like Talib did, without Mos, and what he did with Mos without HiTek... no disrespect, just a thought from someone who buys your music, supports all your shows, your site, and has been doing so long before it was just suburban white kids who found this new thing called 'HipHop'at your shows...