Qwel & Jackson Jones – “Dark Day ” – [Galapagos 4]

Max Level   1/7/2006   CD, Hip Hop

Qwel from Chicago has got to be the illest emcee going; if there’s anyone digging deeper with words I’d like to know who it is. When this cat expresses something it’s not going to be less than like a hundred words long? rhyme after rhyme after rhyme coming at us in waves. True to the record’s title, this is a dark trip, an ongoing fable about people blindly worshipping at the Tower Of Babel while the people building it are wising up, asking questions, and losing hope. There’s music too: Jackson Jones makes beats so good I hardly notice they’re there, which in my mind is a high compliment. I mean anyone can put some loops together and hope an emcee can do something with it. But Jones’ work adds real force to the words without calling attention to itself. Flutes, guitars, bells, crunchy beats, explosions, basically you name it. Qwel is given inspired backing upon which to soar.