Album Review

I‘ve had this record in my possession for a criminally long time without giving it its due process: a solid review (sorry, Josh, forgive me). Stu Dent, straight outta Albany, New Yawk, is an alter ego to another long-running project Mister Joseph Evans has going on, and in keeping with the oh-so-mysterious vibe, we‘re not gonna divulge who it is at this juncture. Go do some research and you‘ll figure it out.

Nephilim is a distinct left-turn from Evans‘ main persona, forgoing shiny, banging beats for more understated, lo-fi underground material. It‘s simple, head-nodding rap, rap in the truest sense of the word; there are no skits or interludes or instrumentals dotting the landscape and making a guy wish they‘d just get to the point already, there‘s just Stu Dent and a few guests along for the ride, including the Solseekers‘ Cesar and Just Me combining on ‘Dayda Deigh‘ as well as Relic guesting on ‘Portable Eclipse‘, EVS appearing with ‘Invisibullet‘ and Dirty Moses chipping in on ‘Emerging Kingdom‘. Dropping knowledge over tight, dusty bedroom beats never sounded so good.

Production on various cuts from the likes of Prime, June 22 and Deepspace 5‘s Beat Rabbi (still one of the best monikers in hiphop for my money) mean this is a solid record even without Stu Dent‘s presence, but the guy‘s voice just drips sincerity and poetic grace, combining a rough-voiced style and simplistic patterns with a well-read vocabulary, and elevating the album to ‘essential‘ status. This is a man who wants nothing more in life than God, family and hiphop, and those three topics and many others are addressed on Nephilim. The press sheet accompanying the album contains notes on each song, and clearly this dude means business ("We have to remember this is war, not a vacation to see how many cars we can drive," reads a snippet from the record‘s last song, ‘That‘s It‘), challenging his Christian listeners to shape up and ship out, and presenting his beliefs through music that‘s undeniably valid, no matter what your chosen path.

As a member of the Deepspace5 crew (check out their 2001 album The Night We Called It A Day - superb) as well as a solo writer, Stu‘s a busy man, but he‘s probably ready to bust out his next project by the time you‘re through reading this. Watch for it.

[Illect]

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