Aceyalone - Accepted Eclectic
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Rolling Stone Rating: 3
While most hip-hop fans wouldn't know Aceyalone from Joe (or Kurtis) Blow, the veteran rapper stands tall as godfather of the L.A. underground that produced acts such as Dilated Peoples, Jurassic-5 and, to some extent, Eminem. In the early Nineties, Acey's Freestyle Fellowship quietly stretched hip-hop's boundaries, using songcraft, inventive beats and precise, dynamic rhyme flows. As subsequent solo efforts brought meager commercial returns, Aceyalone's cult status and poetic power have grown, evidenced by his lyrically rich 1998 concept album, A Book of Human Language. Alone for the third time on Accepted Eclectic, Acey seems comfortable enough with elder statesmanship to celebrate his laurels, advise others and wax optimistic in ways that surely won't yield greater exposure. But, title track excepted, Eclectic often trades Aceyalone's intricate lexicography for more facile, repetitive rhymes - still...
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