For their first release since Jay-Z signed them to Def Jam, the veteran Philadelphia rap band display a knuckled-down determination that utterly becomes them.

Every second of this album, an extended experimental tribute to their friend and sometime collaborator the late James “J. Dilla” Yancey, is both artful and meticulous. The band have long meshed live instruments with samples, but on tracks such as the Stevie Wonder-hued Long Time Coming, the atmospheric Take it There and, best of all, Here I Come, a bouncing, robotic song that emphasises their understanding of hip-hop’s sonic and emotional possibilities, they take their music to a new level of intensity and excellence.

5/5

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