Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 13/10/2003
Label: Studio K7

Trying to push poetry or spoken word onto the urban music-listening masses, no matter how dope or hip it sounds, has always proved an arduous task. It has endured as an art form though thanks to a few key players: Gil Scott Heron, Dana Bryant, Michael Franti and Ursula Rucker, to name but a few.

True to the heritage of the urban poetess, Rucker has become known for tackling hard-hitting social issues with razor-sharp lyricism and a voice that caresses like silk. Her indubitable talent has made her the poetess du-jour for an international coterie of respected underground music-makers, from Japan's Silent Poets, Germany's Jazzanova, UK's 4 Hero and her local Phillie pals King Britt and The Roots.

2001's 'Supa Sista' - Ursula's debut - saw her use the beat-building skills of her buddies to create a more personal backdrop to her inner-city yarns and transcendent verbalistics. It turned out to be a sparse, hypnotic ride, with Rucker's narratives nakedly conspicuous against a slow-moving sea of abstraction.

'Silver Or Lead' is different. One part 'best-of' album (it features collaborative recordings that have been released on other artist's albums such as 'Time' - 4 Hero - and 'Return To Innocence Lost' - The Roots) and two parts new/unreleased material, it's a bolder, more colourful artistic statement.

The usual producers pop up again - Rob Yancey, Jazzanova, King Britt, Mysterium, Lil Louie Vega - this time offering a less metallic and mono-colour soundtrack. Now their music billow exotically out of the speakers on waves of rich melody, enveloping the listener in a swirling world of soul and melody.

Rucker's voice sounds all the better for it. Her issues remain ruffle some and her soliloquy's stay sassy, but her voice reverberates with a more confident, even defiant, tone within the vibrating groove structures of house, hip hop and drum and bass.

Punchy enough to make the feet kick and clever enough to make the cerebellum tick, Rucker's ruckus consistently reminds us of the lyrical depth that hip hop once had but which seems to have been sadly left behind in it's quest for cliche and bling.

    by Paul Sullivan