Customer Reviews

The 5% Album

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I'm guessing that the one star reviews are from people that have agendas. The album title alone tells you what you're buying. So if you're not fond of the 5% Nation, then chances are good that you haven't even listened to this LP.

Lord Jamar has set out to civilize 85ers. No more, no less. The complaints about the production are silly for two reasons. One, there's nothing wrong with the production....this isn't party music. Secondly, albums like these don't focus on beats....they focus on rhymes. As far as the album is concerned....like I said already, the message is pretty much obvious due to the album title, so know what to expect before you buy this album. Lord Jamar brings the 5% message to the masses with production that can best be described as stripped down. No fancy party beats, just hard hitting drums and snares. Guest shots from RZA, Reality Allah, Prodigal Sunn, Grand Puba, Raekwon, Papa Wu, Kasim Allah, Sadat X, Horse and a few others are all pretty solid.

As fars flaws, personally, I think the album could've done without the excessive skits. Some were good, others were over the top and may alienate outsiders. Really, out side of that, the album is great.

The 5% Album obviously isn't for everybody, but if you're a fan of anything released by Big Daddy Kane, Brand Nubian, Wu Tang Clan, Busta Rhymes, AZ, Poor Righteous Teachers, Nas, MF Doom, or Rakim, then you dig music from 5 Percenters. Lord Jamar putting this album out isn't any different from anyone else. If you're the least bit curious about the 5% Nation or you already know and want some real hip hop, then this will do the trick. I recommend adding this one to the collection.

Standout Tracks: Deep Space feat. RZA, Supreme Mathematics [Born Mix], Original Man feat. Raekwon & Kasim Allah, Revolution feat. Reality Allah & Horse, The Corner The Streets feat. Grand Puba, I.S.L.A.M., Study Ya Lessons feat. Sadat X & Queen Tahera Earth (My Favorite), and Same Ole Girl feat. Prodigal Sunn

Please, Jamar is trying to bring hip hop back to it's former conciousness, and making excellent music while he's at it. This album is great, and best believe I KNOW my hip hop. Please support Jamar and get this cd, it's a great alternative to the mainstream that is trying to destroy our culture.

Positive Energy Activates Constant Elevation...

This album is very positive!!! This album is 10 stars!! Lord Jamar brought us back to what real music is.
Peace!

Peace, this album is 21 tracks of positive energy and classic hiphop material. Bringing all hiphop fans back to the foundation of hiphop, which is, self love, accompanied with racial, and cultural pride. Yes, I am a 5% and would like to personally thank Lord Jamar for remembering the babies and making an album that my entire family can listen to. Peace, O yea, Citizen Kane, "Kiss 7's As*"

The only thing to say is this is definitely the hottest album hip hop has seen in years. If somebody gives this album a bad review, they know absolutely nothing about hip hop. PEACE!!!!!!!

this album is dope. lord jamar smashes on all that corny, commercial junk the industry tries to force feed us.

this will never be a one star album and it's one of the best releases in hip-hop this year, not one of the worst!

PEACE

THIS IS LORD JEROME ALLAH, REVIEWING LORD JAMARS CD. THIS IS A MUST HAVE FOR ALL BELIEVERS IN ELIJAH AND FATHER ALLAH, THIS CD IS A MUST HAVE!!! I BEEN DOWN WITH THE BRAND NUBIANS SINCE I WAS 14 BACK IN DA DAY, FOR THIS IT CHANGE MY LIFE AND MY VIEWS!! THE 5% IS ALL WISE AND ON POINT.

PEACE

I've been digging Brand Nubian for some time now. This past summer, Lord Jamar hit us with his debut (finally!) "The 5% Album". Since 1990, Brand Nubian has been hit their listeners with knowledge of Islam in almost every one of their album, so the title "The 5% Album", you pretty much know whats comming to you.

For all those people who doubted this guy carrying himself on an album, this proves otherwise. Lord Jamar does an excellent job by himself. The majority of ther songs here are about today's society and the problems that it has. "The Corner, The Streets" with Grand Puba is an example of one of those songs. Another good track that I seem to enjoy Lord Jamar's energy that is fully shown on the track "Advance In The Game". A lot of tracks like "I.S.L.A.M." and "Supreme Mathematics" are songs releating to the concept of the album.

Production wise is excellent also. "Original Man" has some nice production by Preservation and features Raekwon and Kasim Allah. Preservation would produce the dope sounding track "Deep Space" that features The RZA from The Wu Tang Clan. "The Cipher" that features 40 Bandits has dope sounding production also.

Guest wise is preety good for the most part. The most notable ones are on the track "Young Godz" that features Young Dirty (ODB's Son), Young Jusice (The Genius/GZA's Son), and Young Lord (Jamar's Son). Pretty nice track comming from the teenagers, and shows that they have seemed to learn greatly from their fathers.

And this album comes with a 90 page book about Lord Jamar and the history with Islam, and how it started, that is very interesting to read (the track "The Greatest Story Never Told" gives an overview of whats inside). The book also explains how Islam influenced hip hop, and belive it or not, a lot of your favorite artists follow the Islam faith. (I had no idea Busta Rhymes was a muslim). I couldn't stop reading it.

As for anything bad on this album, there are a few problems I can name. I believe some members of The 40 Bandits on the song "The Cipher" could have brought a little momentum on the song. Also 95% of the album is about Islam, which isn't bad, but the subject matter could have changed a little bit from here to there. At some points, it seems as if it's being forced on to listeners.

I'm no where near a muslim, and don't consider religion a big thing in my life, but I highly believe that this album is worth hearing, no matter who you are. If you're into early 90's rap, when it was all about teaching listeners, and not about obtaining materialistic items. I give this an 8 out of 10 for the album alone, and give an extra point for the book that teaches and educates us about something some of us never knew about, something rap is seriously lacking today.

Lyrics: A
Production: A+
Guest Appearances: A-
Musical Vibes: B+
Overall: A

Favorite Tracks: Original Man, Supreme Mathematics, The Corner The Streets, Deep Space, Young Godz, Advance In The Game, The Cipher, Study Ya Lessons, Greatest Story Never Told

The Album is a Classic. Peace to the five percent. Study 120!

If you tired of fake gangsta rappers like 5-0 and many other pieces of junk that is ruining the airwaves, this is the album for everyone, Lord Jamar is a true hip-hop artist that doesn't talk about materialism and other mess that is making rap look bad, here he's straight most of the time with jamar talking different subjects and other memorable moments, This is a very good album and one of the best of this year.

Big Thumbs Up for Me.