This album is composed by T Cotrell. Train Of Thought is a English album released on. The title is a reference to the Black Star Line, a shipping line founded by Pan-Africanist Marcus Garvey.About Train Of Thought Album. Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star (often called simply Black Star) is the debut studio album by Black Star, a hip hop duo consisting of emcees Talib Kweli and Mos Def (the latter of whom now goes by Yasiin Bey).The album was released on September 29, 1998, to critical acclaim.
![]() ![]() Released a little over a year later, Train of Thought was a comprehensive artistic statement signifying what Kweli and Hi-Tek could bring to the table.Though it might not be the popular opinion, I prefer Train of Thought to Black on Both Sides. Building off of Black Star’s success, Mos Def released Black on Both Sides (1999), another of the genre-defining albums of the late 1990s. Their debut album, released in 1998, is one of the best hip-hop albums of the late 1990s. Animal crossing emulator for macHi-Tek creates a laid-back and soulful vibe, as the keyboard-based track practically shimmers. His turns of phrases are almost dizzying as he raps, “My shit blow out filaments and light fixtures / With the right mixture of words used as colors to paint the right picture / Graphic masterpieces your whole shit is smashed to pieces / Make you look at your man who rhyme and be like, ‘You not nasty like he is!’”“The Blast,” the album’s most successful single, captures the prevalent flavor of the album. He packs as many words and syllables as possible while still maintaining nearly perfect diction. Kweli has often detailed that he was a product of cyphers in places like Washington Square Park in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village neighborhood, and songs like “Move Somethin’” and “Some Kind of Wonderful” channel the ultra-competitive energy that he delivered in these settings.“Some Kind of Wonderful,” the first single released for the album, is one of the finest exhibitions of what some have called Kweli’s “baroque” stylings. Overall, it’s nearly flawless in its execution, and it’s both one of the best albums Rawkus ever released and one of the best hip-hop albums of the ’00s.Kweli starts Train of Thought off with a couple of solid tracks that demonstrate his verbal acuity. Furthermore, the continuity in production makes Train of Thought a slightly more cohesive album. ![]() The track itself is bolstered by a live guitar and misty keyboard samples, as Hi-Tek creates the closest the album comes to a party track. The track begins with an appearance by Dave Chappelle, doing an early impression of Rick James, which is still a work-in-progress at the time and not yet at future Chappelle Show levels. Hi-Tek’s ghostly track, constructed from haunting keys and vibraphones, leaves a lasting impression.The jazzy funk of “Touch You” adds some levity to the album. Kweli does a good job at chronicling the often-brutal realm of street justice, while G Rap continues to shine with his unique eye for detail, rapping, “Red time, wipe the sweat around your neck time / One shot spill out your red wine, rock shots to deafen your prime / Pieces of hot lead left in your mind / One slug to the left of your spine, forever late to rest on the shrine.”Reflection Eternal continue to explore death, although from a more philosophical angle, on “Good Mourning.” Touching on themes like the fragility of life and the unpredictability of death, Kweli considers both his own mortality and that of his friends and associates. As a whole, the song is not among the strongest Black Star songs ever recorded, but it’s still dope.Kweli shows he meshes with all types of emcees throughout Train of Thought, bringing in like-minded crew and fellow Spit-Kickers De La Soul on the plucky “Soul Rebels.” He also teams with Flipmode Squad’s Rah Digga and West Coast emcee Xzibit on the confrontational “Down For the Count.” With “Ghetto Afterlife” he collaborates with rap don Kool G Rap to survey the struggles of life on the streets of New York City. Hi-Tek released three installments of Hi-Teknology albums, with especially the first achieving considerable critical acclaim. It’s an apt final statement for an album that investigates so many facets of the Black experience in this country.Train of Thought would be the last Reflection Eternal album for close to a decade, as both Kweli and Hi-Tek each went “solo” in the wake of its release. He tackles everything from institutional racism to sexism to colorism to inherited trauma, all while speaking on the dehumanization, hyper-sexualization, and infantilization of the Black population within the United States. Folded into the “Expansion Outro” and inspired by the Nina Simone song of the same name, Kweli delves into deep themes throughout four lengthy verses, each of which portrays the lives of four different women.
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