Sadat X - Generation X

Aging gracefully has been tough for many of hip-hop's old school. A lot of the problem might be the lack of examples from forerunners. Afrika Bambatta and Kool Herc are hardly millionaires and save for Jay-Z, Bumpy Knuckles, and bizarrely enough Eric B, there aren't too many successful entrepreurs that have stayed solvent past their rap heydeys.

Rap's fan base is getting older as well. There are parents that came up listening to rap music, and maybe even grandparents. The question becomes, is today's rap music what the old school wants to hear about? Sadat X has a unique perspective, having come up with Brand Nubian almost 20 years ago. Nubian were more conscious than the average group of the time and Sadat hasn't lost that part of his personality, but he's still not adverse to smoking weed or getting some ass. Said ass-getting content is oddly juxtaposed against his openly extolling his love for his wife and (literally) telling his in-laws to go fuck themselves on this record, but such are the dichotomies in the hip-hop of today.

X has had varied success with his solo material, I thought Loud Hangover with Akineyle was (and is) among the best hip-hop of the time. By contrast, that Wild Cowboys shit was a nice nod to the Juice Crew, but all in all not the smartest idea. Nor was his getting arrested in Harlem for gun possession and resisting arrest a couple years ago. That's behind him and after the blink and it's gone Black October release comes Generation X, a record that does a pretty decent job of straddling the old school and the new. The beats are decent (all via producer Will Tell) and Sadat still has rhyme skills, but whether you want to listen to a whole album of is another question. I've given it a half a dozen spins thus far and like it, but it's not going to knock my Joell Ortiz or Big Daddy Kane playlists out of rotation. There a couple missteps, like the obvious attempt with Think Different to evoke Slow Down with a (I assume) Regina Spektor loop but Generation X is worth checking out. Reach out to X here to make that happen.

R