3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life Of…

Apparently I do like this type of "progressive" hip-hop. This album has some intriguing sonic atmospheres, it's funky, and the themes are more life-affirming than hardcore or gangsta, so a nice antidote to all that. I had never heard this before, but I dig the energy and the attitude, good stuff. Easy to listen to, didn't make me want to murder anyone!

The contrast between this and The Chronic is pronounced. I enjoyed it, it has a fun beat, and it wasn't inherently hostile right off the bat.

This album always feels more interesting thinking about it compared to listening to it. The approach and overall vibe of this album is really great, but it doesn't come to it's full potential often enough imo. The hits here are really great and it's an album that easily listens away. No real bad tracks and the big hits are fun. Speech may not be the best rapper to ever do it, but he has a pleasant flow and some attention grabbing hooks. Still, there's a number of Hip Hop albums from this very year I'd listen to before it.

The greatest discovery on this album was playing the track ''Mr. Wendal', and immediately remembering the time an old school-friend had played the intro to me in his house one time, and how he loved the 'WaaAAahhH' bit. I'd wondered on that track a few times over the years, and now I know what it's from. A nice little slice of nostalgia there.

Anyway! Broadly I think this is pretty fun, and it's quite a nice listen. I like how upbeat it is. Lots of funky grooves, and interesting music.

3.5 rounded down.

Positive hip-hop, somewhere between De La Soul, Jungle Brothers, Dream Warriors (East Coast) and Outkast, Goodie Mob, Little Brother (Southern), Arrested Development arrived at the gangsta juncture of rap's evolution. While they're no bums when it comes to constructing catchy tracks, their anti-gangsta crusade is both unsubtle and uninformed: 'But he wouldn't stop and I ain't Ice Cube / But I had to take the brother out for being rude.' The genius of hip-hop manifests thru the convergences of opposites: Ice Cube coexists w/ Digable Planets, Above the Law w/ A Tribe Called Quest. Gangsta is not necessarily 'anti-black.' Speech is a funky moralist, but he is also self-righteous. Best track by far: 'Fishin' 4 Religion.' True & groovy.

I've heard it prior and enjoyed it. At a listen back I think it is both surprisingly advanced in its style for the era and sadly still relevant in terms of its revolutionary message.

It was ok, I liked other hip hop albums from this era better though.

Rentoa ja aurinkoista räbää! 3.5/5

I’m at a 4.5. I gotta talk myself into it one way or the other.

I loved around 80% of this album, and that 80% generally includes the instrumentals, the vocals, and a really nice chunk of the lyrics – this has fabulous production, really strong flows for most of the tracks, and I do love a lot of the messages here when they’re not overly preachy.

The 20% of this album I didn’t like is overly preachy, and it has me absolutely trapped – I feel really close to bumping this down to a 4 on the sole account of just how god damn preachy towards the gospel this ends up being the longer it goes – all this talk about purity, finding God, and returning to the soil with the amount of biblical references, allegories, and allusions… it just becomes too much. I tolerated it through the first 12 tracks or so because it’s done in a really clever way that doesn’t feel heavy-handed, and flows really nicely towards the ideas of unity that are usually presented well enough throughout this album.

Track 13 is what sort of finally made me put my foot down, though, because it strikes me as… fake feminism? Again, 1992 vs. 2025 and all that, but the lyricism on that track feels like it hasn’t aged as well, especially in comparison to how lovely “Natural” is right before it. I don’t think it’s possible to be too feminist, but it is possible to take it to the point where it feels vaguely creepy. Specifically, the use of “females” just gave me a sort of ick, because it hasn’t reflected well into how we talk about women nowadays.

Tennessee is a fantastic track, no complaints about that, but goddamn, that last track just struck a nerve in a way that makes all the preachiness of the earlier tracks feel worse. Earlier on, the album draws a distinct line in the sand between “brothers” and “gangsters” (sometimes with the N-word used in place of the latter). I can’t speak to racial makeup & stereotypes like that; it’s not my conversation to have as someone who isn’t a black person… but it does feel really, really awkward in 2025. It acts as such a strong pushback against the gangsta rap that came into effect in the late 80s and early 90s, and it hasn’t aged well. It doesn’t read quite as “unifying” as it probably should be. If it was unifying back then, then power to it, but given modern-day rhetoric about “the good ones” and “the bad ones” that racist people feel emboldened to speak on nowadays, it truly feels awkward & dated in a way that feels kind of uncomfortable.

So, yeah, that 20% of the album really stings for me. And yet, that 20% doesn’t feel like it should override the 80% of that which I did like – when this album isn’t being extremely overly heavy-handed with rhetoric that hasn’t aged well, it is a genuinely great showcase of some of the future flows, production, & general messaging that would better integrate more spiritual topics into the “heavier” rap as the decade went along. For 1992, I think this is a remarkably strong album for most of the tracks; again, the preachiness comes down to toleration & perspective, and for me, if only 2 or 3 tracks don’t click like that on a 15-track album, you’ve gotta be doing something right. It probably did have a lasting impact & impression on a lot of the more socially conscious rappers that would emerge in the years to come, and I think that deserves its flowers.

So, yes, it’s a 4.5 that I will bump up to a 5, but with the caveat that it hasn’t aged well in the approach to its messaging. Objectively, there is nothing wrong with using your platform to spread a message of unity like this, and I cannot imagine that the sort of differentiation between “brothers” and “gangsters” isn’t meant as more of a framing device for the members of the group to get their points across & set themselves apart from a musical standpoint. It is not *their* fault that the messaging has been co-opted by bad faith actors who have twisted it to this point, and I get the feeling that if they had another crack at an album like this, they’d be able to more carefully choose their words to avoid such a thing. The lyrics on this prove that to me, because they’re usually too damn good and too damn vivid to not evoke some type of really nice imagery.

Ultimately, it’s a funky album, with a lot of great beats, great flows, and great lyrics, dragged down a bit by the approach to its messaging, & the length of the album (57 minutes is crazy here, given how much it sort of spins the spiritual wheels). It is a 4.5, straight up, but I enjoyed enough of this that I think it gets the bump up to a 5 for the website. Certainly no less than a 3.

Not really my thing, but one of the better hip hop albums on this list. I got through it, but not something I will listen to again. 3/5

In the 1990s, I mentally filed Arrested Development under “rap for people who don’t really like rap”, but after listening to this album, I can see that was unfair - there’s some good stuff on here. I still think Mr Wendall is patronising though.

A Schoolhouse Rock reference? You'll have to wake up really early to fool an old cat like me.

Tennessee is a perfect pop song. It's been lodged in my head for 30 years..Mr Wendell is terrible. I think that sums up the album. Some of the best pop/rap beats and lyrics mixed with some terrible interstitials.

I didn't recognize this one at all at first, but I was surprised when Mr. Wendal came on and it sounded very familiar. Maybe I just recognised the Sly & The Family Stone sample, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I'd say this was a breath of fresh air in the early 90s, contrasting nicely to the likes of NWA and Snoop Dogg. Sonicly, it hasn't aged particularly well and sounds very of its time. TCQ's Low End Theory, for ex, has definitely aged better. But I still found this very enjoyable, even if it is a bit saccharine in places. Great sample choices and production, and very positive lyrical themes.

Classic for me. Great to revisit and it holds up.

Afrocentric midwestern alternative conscious rap for the masses? Rap around this time was either gangster rap via Dr. Dre's The Chronic, East Coast Hip Hop via A Tribe Called Quest's The Low End Theory, or whatever the Beastie Boys were doing in Check Your Head (punk rap?) so a legitimate alternative was a breath of fresh air. Powered by the three monster singles "Tennessee", "People Everyday", and "Mr. Wendell" this album felt like it was everywhere.

It mostly stands up, once you get past the realization that the version of "People Everyday" isn't the same as the single version you know.

I just noticed that Mr Wendal samples the same song as De La Soul's Eye Know. Overall I like De La Soul more, but this is still good stuff in a similar vein. A high 3, close to a four.

This challenge has taught me I really like early hip-hop and arrested development. This is a great album.

Funky music and great lyrics. I was 10 when this album came out and I have great memories of hearing Mr Wendal and Tennessee on the radio. I loved haring these again

Favourite song: Mr Wendal
Least favourite: All good.
Album artwork: Cool cover

I wanted to like this, but just couldn’t get very into it. Felt repetitive towards the end. Not my jam.

Fun album. A little preachy but tremendously uplifting all the same.