Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 27/06/2005
Label: Traffic

When Jay-Z selected the little-known 9th Wonder as one of the beat-makers on his swan song, "The Black Album", the smart money had him pegged as the next Kanye West. Thankfully, since one Kanye is proving quite enough for the world to handle, 9th is a very different creature. Like West, he's bringing the soul back to Hip Hop but, as the title of this album suggests, with an air of calm reverence for what's gone before him. A backpacker, possibly even a purist, then, but one smart enough to work with Jay-Z and Destiny's Child.

If you were expecting him to blow up with the accelerated career curve that characterises the average Hip Hop charge to top the dynasty in 2005, think again. Albums like this, with little known emcees, continue to be his modus operandi despite the phone calls from Matthew Knowles.

On the evidence of ''Spirit Of 94" that's a mixed blessing. The album's ambitions are inevitably hampered by its narrow worldview and Kaze seldom proves the wordsmith that you're dying to hear on a 9th Wonder beat. But as a tribute to a fine Hip Hop vintage, you could pick a much worse place to start gathering your summer soundtrack.

"Soul Dojo (Essence Of Life Mix)" is the album highlight, with lithe twinkling keys keeping eyelids at half-mast and grins ear-to-ear. The title track does just what is says on the tin, returning you to a time when "respect was earned and everybody wrote their own rhymes." Much of the rest goes by in a warm haze of thick hydro smoke, particular mentions here to "Waiting To Exhale", "For The Record" and the Minnie Ripperton-sampling "What's Good".

It's easy to see this project as being, in its own way, just as reactionary as The White Stripes' Sunday afternoon reconstructions of steam-powered Rock'n'Roll. But because this is Hip Hop and white critics prefer to applaud its futuristic impulse, it'll suffer rather than be celebrated for it.

The truth is, "Spirit Of '94" is an understated pleasure but, no, it doesn't contain anything as thrilling as 9th's "Black Album" cut, "Threat". Or, even, the finer moments on his unsanctioned remix of that album. But it does prove him a versatile producer and one that's content to develop at his own pace rather than take part in the frenzied diamond mining that characterises 21st Century Hip Hop. So, don't sleep on 9th Wonder, you can be sure that Jay-Z won't be forgetting about him anytime soon.

    by James Poletti