Come on NOW!!! I hadn't read this thread all day or else I would've hit folks off with Stevie's and Mrvin's meandering ways.<P>Anyone that knows anything about black music knows that Stevie and Marvin were two of the worst folks at Motown for taking forever to deliver their albums. Stevie held Berry up for an unprecedented amount of loot (at that time) and had Berry and all of Motown shitting in their pants waiting on Songs.<P>Marvin was a dope fiend and could never do shit on time. Motown babied him and they got records from him when he felt like it. Man "Hear, My Dear" is a brilliant work of rage, love, self-pity, and desperation all rolled in one and there was not ONE critic, not ONE, that had anything goods to say about that album. In fact it was only in print for liek a year and then it was rerelased in the mid 90's to celebrate Marvin's anniversary and everybody came out of the woodwork talking about how great an album it is.<P>Voodoo is not Innervisions or Trouble Man. And????????? I mean go and check Stevie's second album. Go check Marvin's second album. No masterpieces there! For D to be at this stage so early on in his career is something special. We can all look back in hindsight at those classic albums, but I believe that Voodoo has advanced present day music (although that might not be saying too much) because it allows the artist to explore the song and the music. It's not a little formula, it's not a how many producer's can I get on my album? As a previous player stated, you have an album where D explores a groove and flips every way from Sunday. That's in the tradition of JB and P Funk and Sly even. That's beautiful. I mean One Mo Gin starts for a minute and a half without a lyric being sung. You can't do that today wwhat in the hell would Angie MArtinez say during all the time leading toi the first verse?<P>Now this album isn't for everyone. I tried to explain that to folks months ago, the same way I warned some folks not to buy Me'shell's Bitter because it asks that the listener work and explore.<P>5 years is a long fuckin' time to wait, too long in my opinion. I can't argue that. But he came back strong and compared to all these acts that put out three albums in a year and a half and put out Double LP after Double LP, I'd rather wait and let an artist find hsi/her way<P>“What are the rewards of those who tend to their God-given talents as they would have the creator tend to their spirits and daily lives? What happens when the artist becomes the conjur man? These are questions that seem to be null and void in the face of all the glitter and glamour that has dominated most successful balck artistry of recent years. We seem to be more preoccupied with cultivating our bank accounts than cultivating our crafts. Nowadays, I find my peers more inspired by an artist's business tactics than their artistry. In fact, we do not seem to mind an artistry that suffers in the face of seemingly good business. More artists yearn to own their own labels, etc. than they seem to yearn to master their crafts. No, we cannot allow any more Bessie Smiths to occur, but once an artist owns their own publishing the question then becomes, what are you going to publish?”<P>The VooDoo Manifesto – Saul Williams