Spirit of Apollo

N.A.S.A., N.a.s.a | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 17, 2009)
• Original Release Date: 2009
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Anti
• ASIN: B001NJY5H6
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #124,803 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

N.A.S.A is an ongoing creative collaboration between two lifelong music aficionados, Squeak E. Clean ad DJ Zegon, and their friends, friends of friends and musical heroes. While N.A.S.A. stands for North America/South America and contains a number of superstar artists from both coasts of the US, it is about as far from a tension-building geographical showdown as a record can get. Rather, their Anti debut The Spirit of Apollo was born with the righteous goal of bringing people together through music and art, and that is exactly what masterminds Sam Spiegel (Squeak E. Clean) and Ze Gonzales (DJ Zegon) have done. Brazilian funk provides the roots of the songs and binds them together into a cohesive whole, but from there, the imagination behind The Spirit of Apollo ranges far and wide. Unexpected collaborations abound on the eighteen track release. Tom Waits growls over Kool Keith, Karen O taunts while Ol' Dirty Bastard gives shout-outs to Wu Tang and N.A.S.A from the grave, and David Byrne, Chuck D and others expound on the evils of "Money." In spite of the range of performers, the pairings seem organic, inspired and make perfect sense on the first listen, never coming off as ironic or impulsive. Vinyl contains digital download card for entire album.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Getting haters only means you're doing something right..., March 2, 2009

By 

Xtian Thomas "MusickLvr" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Spirit of Apollo (Audio CD)

Seriously. I read Pitchfork's 1.6 review of this album. pppbbttthhhhh! There's so many guests on here that there's NO WAY that they're all going to stick out. People who score this low only seem to have done so because they were expecting tooo much. I love this album. The beats are AT LEAST solid (if not Timbaland or Dilla-quality), the guests are wide-ranging and did anyone else read about how it took them 4 years to get this album done? or how they got 5 different artists to come up with 5 different covers?

I saw this clip of Louie C.K. on Conan O' Brian (sp?) talking about how everything's amazing and no one's happy! This is a perfect example of the "most spoiled generation" not appreciating what they have. Before everyone was downloading music back in the early 00's, this would have been out of stock regularly at most independent record stores (remember those, kids?).

Let's start with track 1 and move down. Intro, good. 2 tracks with David Byrne and some other people, gets it off to a good "let's stop worrying about who has what and get into the music". The next two tracks have guest spots from Wu-Tang members and some other reliable members of the hip-hop community. Ohhh, wow... there's so many guest on here, but I noticed that some of them guest on tracks that follow the other one they guested on - that's called establishing a sense of con-tin-u-it-y and on proper albums (remember those?), it's a plus.

The good news is that there's hope for you yet - I used to be you. I had this amazing collection of independent hip-hop and sold quite a lot of it. After I moved out of my cynicism and attitude that it had to be unique and groundbreaking to be any good, I realized that it's freaking hard to come up with consistent beats (like this one) and book guests like they did and the fact that they persevered through 4 years means that $7.99 is the least you could part with for this album, you stingy b@st@rds ;)

p.s. I was going to give it 5 stars, but it just came out a couple of weeks ago and there's so much other stuff coming as well.

*takes cane off the wall and walks down to the corner store to get some more hard candy for the grandkids*

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great CD, diverse, creative, unique, July 22, 2010

By 

VTECheart - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Spirit of Apollo (Audio CD)

Ignore what some review sites say(like Pitchfork), this CD is awesome. The amount of great artists crammed onto this CD is awesome. Admittedly some of the tracks aren't that great but they can't overshadow the brilliance of this record. This CD will make those who do not ordinarily like hip hop, R&B, and rap into converts. The Spirit Of Apollo shows us all how great music can be if artists don't make songs so that they'll be #1 hits and played constantly on the radio. This is pure expression distilled into great beats and lyrics. Don't hesitate to buy it. This is a truly special album.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An interesting mix of artists, May 9, 2009

By 

Oliver "Klosov" (LA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Spirit of Apollo (Audio CD)

The best thing I can say about this album is that its not quite as good as Dan the Automator's Handsome Boy Modeling School. Its very similar in format. DJ makes the beats gets some of the best hip hop artists around combine's it with Some of the most unique rock artists (NASA has David Byrne, Tom Waits and John Frusciante, Dan The Automator has Mike Patton, The Mars Volta, and Jack Johnson) and what you get is a very unique collection of music. Don't buy the album if you are looking for great DJ's but if you look at the list of contributors and see a bunch of artist you like then definitely buy this album. It is primarily a hip hop album with the likes of Method Man, RZA, KRS One, ODB, Kool Keith, Del, and many more. Check out tracks 3. Money and 8. Strange Enough. Peace!