Fear Of A Black Tangent [Enhanced]

Busdriver | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 21, 2001)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Enhanced
• Label: Mush
• ASIN: B00074CB9M
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #120,482 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Yawning Zeitgeist Intro [Freestyle]

2. Reheated Pop!

3. Unemployed Black Astrognaut

4. Happiness ('s Unit of Measuremant)

5. Avantcore

6. Wormholes

7. Map Your Psyche

8. Cool Band Buzz

9. Note Boom

10. Low Flying Winged Books

11. Befriend the Friendless Friendster

12. Sphinx's Coonery

13. Lefty's Lament

14. Avantcore [D-Styles Mix][*]

15. Happiness ('s Unit of Measurement) [Prefuse 73 Remix][*]

16. Unemployed Black Astronaut [Nobody Remix][*]

17. Unemployed Black Astronaut (Nobody Remix)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Saving grace, December 19, 2006

By 

Keith Tyler (Seattle, WA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fear Of A Black Tangent (Audio CD)

There are those who insist that "real rap" is dead, that it was killed by R&B and Gansgsta and Crunk. They are the ones who stopped listening.

Busdriver gives hip-hop a new direction with rapid-fire, esoteric lyrics with a sophistication and intellectualism that rises above the collegiate Chubb Rock; like Professor Griff without the agenda.

"Unemployed Black Astronaut" is the showcase track here, a catchy tune with a sing-along chorus that deep down unloads double cynical barrels on mainstream hip-hop, major labels, even racial and urban-cultural divisions. He continues his lament against both mainstream music and cultured music critics with "Reheated Pop Sensation", a song-length prostration parody.

Even Busdriver's own adoptive subgenre of music is fair game for the rap critic of rap, with "Avantcore" glibly mocking the contrarians of underground/alternative hip-hop. The album ends with remixes of three of the album's showcase tracks.

No, rap is not dead, it never died, you just fell off. Time to get back on the bus.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars best album of 2005 so far, April 6, 2005

By 

Daniel - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fear Of A Black Tangent (Audio CD)

this is the first amazon review i've ever took the time to write. probably the last, too... but when i saw that this album had only one review so far i couldn't believe it.

busdriver is one of the most innovative and interesting performers in contemporary music ... this album is simply briliant, smart, hillarious. and the beats are tremendous too ...

if you like the most invoative stuff in hip-hop: aceyalone, lyrics born, brother ali, mike ladd, saul williams, etc., you need to feature busdriver too...

buy this record

4.0 out of 5 stars It's called life by resurrection., April 17, 2006

By 

Sam Howard "SIXONETWO" (Minneapolis, MN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fear Of A Black Tangent (Audio CD)

People base reviews on personal taste. I have no beef with that, or someone who gives this album a two of three. But as you can probably tell, other people do like this album. Emcees diss their fans all the times, have you ever been to a show? And if an emcee never criticizes themselves, then how do we know their real? Every emcee should have an album like this. Considering it's Easter its very odd I'm listening to this album. I think Busdriver had a plan with this one. Maybe rip himself down with some sort of emo-suicide album, and then come again with another Temporary Forever-album. But the most important thing is that he switched up his style. He didn't want to be fast and happy Busdriver anymore. He wanted to be fast and angry Busdriver. Sometimes on this album I think he should just stay pissed (Unemployed Black Astronaut) and sometimes I wish he would just go back to Temporary Forever. Overall this album is not as good as Temp. Forever, but I like this better than all his Temp. Forever wannabe albums. If you really like Busdriver but think his writing is monotonous, buy this album.

PS also here's a tip for a reviewer. Express your opinions without completely trashing fans of the artist and the genre. I mean seriously if you bought the CD you were obviously a fan of the guy at one point in time, so are you a clone pseudo-intellectual like the rest of us. Oh, and if you've ever listened to Temporary Forever, he explains the name.