Customer Reviews

Later That Day

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

We're all friends here, right? Hmmm... We'll begin with a course of apologetics- Lyrics Born is one of my top-five, all-time, favorite MC's. No one sounds like him and his work with Latyrx and Quannum (as well as his numerous guest slots- Blackalish, et al) has-been consistently top-notch. Excellent.

His rhymes on "Bombonyall," "Latyrx," "Say That," "Lady don't tek no," "Balcony Beach," and Blackalicous's "Release," among others, are mind-blowingly inventive. His flow is like no other and his wordplay never fails to kill me (par example, I don't recall anyone else ever working in rhymes about 'manticores,' like LB does on "Bombonyall").

I have been looking foward to this release since college, late '98...

So why the three stars (three and a half but leaning to three)? Well, I honestly just don't really like this much. It's just... not that tight. Too many skits and sleeper tracks. There are a couple stand-out tunes (see below), but overall I just don't like the whole thing. The production is consistently badass, and the 80's funk theme works well. But I didn't buy the album for the beats (not entirely) I got it because I wanted to be blown away by LB, his unswerving delivery and surreal-ass rhymes. And, pound for pound, track for track, I don't seem to be hearing it.

As other reviewers point out- this is way above most mainstream hip hop. But... so what? Give my little brother a tuning fork and a handful of dog feces and I have no doubt the results would be better than your average hip hop release (Ohhhh! Can you feel the case of hate that I brought?). Saying it's better than the everyday tripe we all run from is not much of a compliment.

Now then, "Do That There," is simply great! I play it constantly- it slams and bounces and Lyrics Born rides the beat like damn the song is a rodeo of funk! Love it. In fact, it's exactly what I was expecting (only I wanted a whole album of bangin' tunes and hotcake funkee beats) "Callin' Out" is damn slick too (great chorus, great horns). And I love the "U Ass Bank" sketch, as well as the way it segues into "Cold Call," perfectly. "the Last Trumpet," is nice and tight.

Soooo... tracks 1 through 3 I have learned to avoid. "Stop Complaining" Aside from the John Denver IRS guy towards the end- don't like it. And I could've sworn that bassline (or at least the drop-off at the end of the fourth bar) was used for "Release," off of Blackalish's last album. "Before and After," didn't do much for me. "Pack Up," is pretty good, I guess, but I still tend to skip it. Same for "Hott Bizness." And "Love Me So bad (that may be the problem- I don't care for LB the soulful singer man)." And, now that I think about it, "One Session," doesn't prime my musket either... And the end is... well, it ends.

Soooo... that's five tracks that I dig. For a whole album....

Maybe I built it up in my mind too much... No one's perfect, and this is all just the opinion of a guy who will most likely never have an album. So Maybe I should just "Stop Complaining," eh? I'm sure we haven't heard the last, or even the beginning, from Lyrics Born- he's got ingenuity, imagination, and time on his side as well as a bad ass crew to back him on future endeavors. I'm looking forward to his next one and everything he puts out in between.

Lyrics Born's full-length debut is an exercise in originality and certainly one of the best albums of the year. The album is impossible to pigeonhole into one genre. Equal parts soul, disco, hip-hop, r & b and even some new wave make for a rewarding listening experience. Lyrics Born has been impressive from the start but an album with 17 tracks normally has some marginal filler material. Alas, not here. His talent is tremendous and he even manages to bring one extreme rarity, a funny hip-hop skit ("U A** Bank).
On "Bad Dreams", Mr. Shimura starts off on the right track with excellent production and something like call and response on the lyrics end. "Callin' Out" is an excellent track to get your grind on. A funky disco beat flows behind the lyrical dexterity of Lyrics Born. "Cold Call" features Gift of Gab on the other end of a phone call from LB. A fluid rhyming conversation over the phone makes for one of the album's conceptual high spots. Cut Chemist makes an appearance on "Do That There" bringing some of old-school beats to back up what might be the years best retro joint. "The Last Trumpet" is the most political track on the album and comes off as a tad bit didactic but the collaboration with Lateef the Truth Speaker and the incredibly urgent production behind the track make up for any heavy-handedness. The recurring voices of Constance Lopez and especially Joyo Velarde fill out the album exquisitely.
Lyrics Born comes into his own on this album as a producer. Exceptional beats ranging from funky (pretty much everywhere) to something like taiko drumming (on "The Last Trumpet") provide a solid basis and would make up for inferior lyrics. Luckily, the spit here is as tight as the production and Lyrics Born joins the exclusive ranks of hip-hop highest echelon.

Lyrics Born's first solo album is good, but not great. I wanted a veritable tour de force, but it seems like he is just tip-toeing around it. There are some excellent songs on this album, but as a whole it doesn't provide the experience I think a lot of fans were hoping for.
You won't regret picking this up, but it doesn't completely satisfy.

I've been following Lyrics Born since he was known as Asia Born so when his solo album dropped I copped it right away without even giving it a listen. We've all heard the single "Callin' Out" (if you haven't it was the definitive headbanger of 2003) and we all loved it, so there were a lot of expectations for this entire album to inspire rumps to shake and heads to bob.

For every bad thing I have to say about the album I have several good things to say. First off LB did this album entirely on his own with very very little help from the Quannum collective. You will notice that he produced virtually the entire album, save one effort from Cut Chemist (which isn't anything to write home about anyway). For the most part his beats are reminiscent of the Quannum style (funky, soulful, uplifting), which is never a bad thing. He spits fire on virtually every track, and the spotlight is exclusively on him: Gift of Gab's contribution is irrelevant on "Cold Call" and he outshines his Latyrx counterpart Lateef the Truthspeaker on "The Last Trumpet". I'm a huge fan of both those lyricists but there is no denying that Lyrics Born has done his homework and remains up there as one of Cali's most overlooked MCs.

If you love LB's soulful side then you will love tracks like "Bad Dreams" - a funky stomp about life's woes - and "Love Me So Bad" - a sexy reggae-inspired groove about trouble in paradise. Peep those two tracks and if you're feeling his soulful side then you'll definately appreciate his approach on the mic as a broken-hearted MC with some stuff to get off his chest.

You will not be dissapointed with LB's abilities on the mic. LB's style is very much modelled around the father of Quannum rhymesayers, Gift of Gab. Like Gab his flow is bananas and he's got lyrics for days. "Callin' Out" is quintessential Lyrics Born - fast-paced and witty. "Hott Bizzness" is, in my opinion, the stand-out track as far as his rhyming goes. You get the impression that he takes an enormous breath at the beginning of the track and doesn't let it go until the song fades out. That is skill.

Unfortunately I think this album is inconsistent. I hate to say that because there are a handful of headbanging tracks, but there are also a handful of tracks just begging to be skipped. Like I said in the title I am not mad at this album. LB worked damn hard on this and he deserves credit for taking this project all on his lonesome, unlike a lot of up-and-comers who just rely on already established artists to earn their success for them. LB is a better producer than most mainstream producers will ever be, I think he just has to come into his own. I think the underlying problem is that the beats are often too layered, which isn't really necessary with LB because his flow and style can grace a track that boasts even the simplest of beats.

Basically you should buy this album because it's an example of do-it-yourself hip hop trying to make its mark in what's become a mass-produced music industry. The truly dope beats compensate for the few stinkers, and Lyrics Born is among the illest MCs you've never heard of.

In an entertainment industry increasingly galvanised by greedy record labels, commerce, Pop Idols and the X-Factor, it's refreshing to occasionally stumble across an independent, nurtured success story. Enter Lyrics Born. Japanese/American Tom Shimura began on the path to this debut album some 13 years ago at the University of California in Davis. There the aspirant MC met several like-minded individuals, who in their current incarnations are: DJ Shadow, Chief XL and Gift of Gab (Blackalicious) and Lateef the Truthspeaker.
The collective decided to break into the music industry as a team, forming a collective initially known as Solesides and more recently as Quannum Projects. LB and Lateef released their debut as Latyrx in 1994. Despite several re-releases The Album has remained difficult to track down and not widely successful. Shadow and Blackalicious have gone on to bigger successes, while 1999's I Changed My Mind, a collaborative effort between Lyrics Born and The Poets of Rhythm became a big hit for the label. According to LB, "Quannum is an example of what commitment, sacrifice, destiny and good fortune can bring. How did I come to be surrounded by such genius?"
The subject matter of the album is varied, but there seems an overall desire to toy with the pressures, banalities and joys of everyday life, again refreshing in the hip-hop world. The ups-and-downs are reflected in Shimura's lyrical performances, which run from the playful exuberance of Hott Bizness and the Cut Chemist-produced Do That There, to the introspective conversational style of Rise and Shine and Before and After. In the tradition of Prince Paul, U Ass Bank is a genuinely funny hip-hop skit, and Stop Complaining an ode to a favourite American pastime.
Guru once said of success in hip-hop, "it's mostly tha voice", and this is LB's true blessing. Possessing a deep, throaty voice, he effortlessly strides between razor sharp rapping and sing-song hooks delivered in his trademark soulful rasp. This lends a real urgency to the taut funk-driven opener Bad Dreams, delivered in a call-and-response fashion with female vocalists Joyo Velarde and Constance Lopez.
Vibrant party anthem Callin' Out stakes a claim as the catchiest tune delivered by Quannum to date, triumphing via rolling bass, distorted horns, a sweet guitar lick and more wonderful vocal manipulation. This song also highlights LB's knack for Everyman eloquence, "My life's a culmination of my past achievements, with a lotta heavy lifting, a lotta deep breathing, a lotta courage, a lotta doubts, a lotta mixed-feelings, a lotta love, a lotta luggage for a lotta reasons." This alliterative mouthful just rolls off his tongue, typical of his motor mouth abilities.
The album's most serious and sombre moment The Last Trumpet is a hook-up with long-term partner-in-rhyme Lateef, over ominous-sounding drums and sinister bass. It showcases the duo's immaculate vocal interplay, reminiscent of a latter day Run DMC, while the politically-charged lyrics offer post-9/11 reflections such as, "All the wicked seeds we've sewn have grown, and poisoned all the Earth...The curse that lurks around the corner is the product of our work." The track builds momentum to a rousing call-to-arms chorus, and is among the very best work the duo have produced.
But such is the nature of this album that this track is followed with the album's most fun moment, the braggadocio battle-rap of Pack Up. Over a storming beat by DJ D-Sharp and after a perfect intro sampled from Jimi Hendrix's If 6 Was 9, LB proceeds to take on all comers.
The only track which fails to stand up is the weak posse cut One Session with the Altered Egos, even reggae love songs aren't out of his reach as he duets with Velarde on Love Me So Bad. It may have been a long time arriving but Later That Day is well worth the wait, an album as audacious as its creator's talent and as humble as his persona.

This album disappoints for those with high hopes for LB. As a huge Latyrx/Quannum fan, the LB album was highly anticipated. Reviews made it sound like there was even more cause for hope. Sadly, it disappoints these expectations.

A good album with flashes of brilliance. Skits are distacting/useless. When LB stops the theatrics and gets down to his signature style, the album is at its best.

It is listenable, but LB is capable of putting together a classic album and it is not Later That Day.

If you're like me, the only time you heard Lyrics Born was either on funky sing-song performances, or semi-lackluster appearances on various Quannum Spectrum projects. It's easy to get outshined when your main competition is artists like Gift of Gab and Lateef. And in my mind, the Latyrx album was groundbreaking in terms of creativity, but left a little to be desired in the pure hip hop dept.

"Later That Day" solves a lot of that unsatisfied side of the listener, as Lyrics Born seems to have finally meshed together his funky, unique singy style with hard and precise raps. "Pack Up" and "Callin' Out" are absolute gems of funk, while songs like "One Session" and "Bad Dreams" continue to show his creative take on not only hip hop, but music in general. And the final verse on "Do That There" (with production by Cut Chemist) has to be heard to be believed.

I wasn't expecting this album to be as impressive, but I guess that's what I get for shortchanging one of the most creative and dynamic circles in all of hip hop. Check it out.

It would probably be a bit uppity of me to proclaim Lyrics Born as the saviour of hip-hop but he's right up there with the apostles. Part of the old-school revival with Jurassic 5, Blackalicious, Non-Prophets, et al., Later That Day... oozes funk as sticky as molasses and as authentic as Afro Sheen with smooth production that suits the often innocent late seventies/early eighties sound. Less spiritual but more graphic than the Gift Of Gab, Lyrics Born has a better flow to his precise rhymes than the river Thames. The album has a distinct sound of a man raised on Earth, Wind & Fire, the Ohio Players, and Funkadelic who is determined to do his influences justice as opposed to Snoop Dog and the like who preach respect of those gone before but exploit it to the worst of their ability. So those who enjoy topical lyrics and honest music would be advised to pick this up or forever hold your piece [like a gun...get it?].

Alright, to be honest with you, I had never heard of Lyrics Born until about a week ago. But now I know I've really been missing out.

Recently, A friend of mine introduced me to Lyrics Born's music, and now i'm hooked. It all started with recognizing the beat of "calling out" as one from a Diet Coke commercial, and thinking he was a one hit wonder, I dismissed Lyrics Born as a mediocre artist. Later on in the week I heard some more of his songs, like "bad Dreams" and "Stop Complaining" and I'm now hooked on Lyrics Born.

There's just something about his music that makes you feel good when you listen to it. Lyrics Born is just one of those artists that make you want to drive slow and bob your head when you listen to it in a car, or break out into a dance when you hear the beat to his songs.

This is a definate must buy for anyone who enjoys good music, great rythm and amazing lyrics (no pun intended).Anyone who likes that old school feel mixed with some new school words can't go wrong with "Later that Day..." By Lyrics Born.

This album has some fresh tracks on it.. Hello and Callin' Out are both hot, hot, hot. Throw those tunes on and ladies and gents will dance. Baby!

There are a few weaker tunes on the disc - but you can tell Lyrics definately put a LOT of time and energy into this album. His spliff-soaked voice is an octave higher than TonLoc's - but it's got the same feel to it. "Get down! Get down! You know that's right, You know that's right..."

You need something a little underground to play at your next party... one of those "damn, who IS this?" type discs? Throw this thing on.