Neighborhood Watch

Dilated Peoples | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 6, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Capitol
• ASIN: B0001ENYOE
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #144,657 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great album from Dilated, but..., April 6, 2004

By 

Chris Milam (Richmond, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Neighborhood Watch (Audio CD)

After a 3 year hiatus, Evidence, Iriscience, and Babu bring us their third album, Neighborhood Watch. After avoiding the sophomore slump with their excellent 2001 album, Expansion Team, Dilated was looking to deliver a classic with this one, but falls short mainly due to Evidence's much-criticized method of delivery.

Lyrically, Ev has almost taken a step back, and his monotone flow sounds as boring as ever, particularly on his self-produced "Love & War". He shows spurts of energy on higher-tempo tracks like "Who's Who", but doesn't hold a candle to his partner in rhyme, Rakaa Iriscience.

Rakaa is severely slept on as an emcee, probably due to Evidence's lack of charisma on the mic. When he goes for delf, such as on the politically-charged "Big Business", it's obvious that he's stepped up his game:

"But I fight for peace, that's what the problem is
War is big biz, ask an economist
They speak in volumes, just
Callin' anti-war and anti-American synonomous

Back in the day I'd have gotten blacklisted just for speaking up
Hoover probably would've screamed 'Communist!'"

Production-wise, Dilated's friendship with the Alchemist doesn't hurt Neighborhood Watch at all, as he gives them heat with tracks like "Marathon", "Poisonous", and "World on Wheels". Evidence's beats are still top-notch with tracks like the aforementioned "Love & War", and Babu is also fine-tuning his skills behind the boards, lacing the Dilated-Likwit posse cut "Closed Session" and his remake of "DJ Premier In Deep Concentration", cleverly titled "DJ Babu In Deep Concentration". Everyone's favorite college dropout, Kanye West, drops in to produce and guest on "This Way", which tries way too hard to recreate the feel of Talib Kweli's "Get By", but still sounds good. The only dud is Evidence's solo track, the boring, ironically named "Caffeine", which production-wise doesn't hit with the same force that the rest of the album does.

Neighborhood Watch is one of the best hip-hop albums of 2004 so far, but it's not the step up from Expansion Team that it should have been.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A slower, less frantic side of Dilated, July 12, 2004

By 

Jeff (Boulder, CO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Neighborhood Watch (Audio CD)

I've been an avid DP fan since the release of their first LP, The Platform. I was honestly a little disappointed with quite a few of the tracks on Expansion Team but was also blown away by a few (i.e. Worst Comes to Worst, Panic, Night Life, Pay Attention.) Well its three years later and Neighborhood Watch drops.

As is the case with most Dilated records, the production is hit or miss. Here we've got laid-back bangers like Marathon, Caffeine, Poisonous, Reach Us, and Big Business. Kanye takes the boards for This Way as well as contributing a decent verse. I couldn't get over the similarities between this track and his track for Talib Kweli, Get By, but its a real nice beat. There's a little more energetic fare in World on Wheels and Love and War. I really wasn't impressed with the gritty, repetitious beat for Who's Who, but all in all, the production is more hit than miss.

Lyrical content on Neighborhood Watch is pretty decent. We get some political commentary, bitch commentary, state of hip hop jive, and brag raps. As far as flow goes, the Peoples really haven't evolved too much. Evidence's lyrics are sub-par from his raps on The Platform but I enjoyed them more than his contributions to Expansion Team. His flow is still precise and sharp, though, and I've always loved it. Rakaa is spot-on on almost every song and compliments Evidence very nicely.

As the amazon.com reviewer said, we were all secretly hoping for a hands-down classic in Neighborhood Watch. Dilated Peoples are amazing but haven't reached the level I know they can acheive. Cop it and crank it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Simply put.....not as good as past albums but still good, April 10, 2004

By 

DJ Benny (AKA Ben A.) (Boston Burbs, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Neighborhood Watch (Audio CD)

Dialated People's quality overall has dropped a bit, mainly cause of Evidence's flow, and certain production on some songs. But it is still a very good album. Irascience is still a mad lyrical genius, but overall on this album you can tell they branched out they're style a bit to appeal to more mainstream listeners. They're not exactly trying to sell out, although it looked like it with Kanye West on a track. Even so, the song with Kanye West is one of the best on the album, same with Love and War, Marathon, and Posionous. Even so, they are still a fresh group with a much better message than most mainstream rappers, which gives them the same approach towards their carrers as Kanye West and the Roots.

In otherwords, a good album, not their best, but Dialated will still be around for a while.