Review – Deepspace 5 ‘The Night We Called It A Day’

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Listen. Do not just hear. Deepspace5 is a collective of hip hop heroes with a message worth listening to. After building street credibility via a spectacular debut EP, the conglomerate reunites. This time for a full LP. It begins: “A general partnership under the firm name… Deepspace5.” And then the beat starts. And then the partners are listed. The Pride. Beat Rabbi. Sev Statik. Labklik. Phonetic Composition. Mars ILL. All dope in their own right. Mind blowing when combined. From the opening strains to the closing track, The Night We Called It a Day is compelling. Following the intro is the seven plus minute title track that gives you a good glimpse at the hotness to follow. Prodoction on the tracks passed back and forth between Dust, Beat Rabbi, and Harry Krum which keeps the album flowing nicely without falling into the rut of redundant beats. Various freestyles in between tracks help hold your attention for the disc’s entirety. On the lyrical side of things, there are so many quality lines packed into this CD it’s ridiculous. Sev, manCHILD, Freddie B, Playdough, Listener and Sintaxtheterrific all take turns killing the tracks, touching on a wide variety of topics. Stick This In Your Ear, the strongest single from the album, features one of the original verses i’ve ever heard a la the Listener. Sev’s verse on industry offers some insight into the too-often untold business side of things. ManCHILD describes to a “t” an encounter with a Jehovah’s Witness. Playdough ponders the pros and cons of following God instead of man. Despite the diverse themes, however, “The Night…” is overall a very cohesive body of work. Deepspace5 represents some of the best talent hip hop has to offer which makes it absolutely shameful that “The Night…” was basically released under the rug. The push on this project was surprisingly minimal and as the rumors of a sophomore release tickle my ears, i only hope that things change.

Release Date: January 1, 2002

Label: Uprok Records

Buy on Bandcamp

Tracklisting
1. The collective [intro]
2. The Night We Called It A Day
3. Elementary
4. Stick This In Your Ear
5. Winter In Manhattan
6. Take The Rhythm
7. Closed Caption
8. This Curse I Bear
9. Ziontific
10. World Go Round
11. F-Words
12. Joywriting
13. Murder Creek
14. Thinking By Numbers
15. If Tomorrow Starts Without Me

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