Hypocrisy Is the Greatest Luxury

Älykästä kritiikkiä taitavasti syljettynä.

I did not enjoy this album much, it is boring and repetitive

The artist’s name is a mouthful. Great voice and sound though. Very Public Enemy.

My first though was that this is socially well-behaved rap and hip-hop. Nice lyrics and messages. The lyrics on Television, the drug of the nation and Satanic Reverses are amazing. Very important of the time.

Favourite song: Television, the drug of the nation
Least favourite: All tracks were good
Album artwork: OK cover.

Feels like a more experimental public enemy, but can see why folk see it as a poor man’s public enemy. I’m on the fence with this album, but think it’s worth at least 1 listen.

feels a lot more like poetry read over music than a lot of rap, unfortunately I'm not the biggest fan of poetry. musically it gets pretty repetitive but there are some nice moments, and i do appreciate the well expressed political sentiments (which i am of course biased towards) but sonically there's just not that much to write home about

I only new Michael Franti from Spearhead being on the bill at jamband festivals and had no idea he had a early incarnation as a Boots Riley/the Coup style conscious political rapper. Very much an artifact of early 90s post-coldwar left cultural production, the main concerns are war (in a kind of generic sense), consumption, media/TV, corporate power structures, the war on drugs, militarism. Musically, it's pretty straight over the plate early 90s hip hop production - drum machine beats, jazz and rock samples, some turntable scratching - the tracks are busy but not lushly produced. This is self-identified brocolli hip hop you listen to because it's good for you - impactful in terms of the merging of content/form, but a document of its time, more like watching an old episode of the daily show than listenting to a timeless classic.

Nice trip down memory lane but an early example of that 90s thing of the CD tempting artists to make their albums a bit too long. There are two or three tracks in the second half that could have been cut.

Have not heard of this album / artist previously, but this SLAPS. Over the hour it does get a little "samey" but great lyrics over cracking beats

Okay so, this album spawned an entire mental discourse on meta-criticism of albums for me. What's the point of music? Is it to entertain, evoke emotions, inform, incite, exalt? Is it show off the skill of the artist? Is it a measure of all these things?

And so I wondered why this album falls flat for me. You could look at the social awareness and think "well, it sounds important, so I should give it a 5" right? This album is mostly concerned with inciting and informing, but on almost every other measure I can think of, it falls short. And for my own personal assessment, those values mean very little to me, hence my rating.

April 4, 2024

HL: "Satanic Reverses", "Language of Violence", “The Winter of the Long Hot Summer”, "California Über Alles"

Nice of Apple to provide some of the album :/ I guess some samples weren't cleared or something?

Well, this is my first time hearing the Heroes of Hiphoprisy. Digging through 15 year old YT videos to find every song is not an ideal way to listen to any album, but I think it was worth it to get the whole package. While it borders on jazz rap like A Tribe Called Quest, that sound is obfuscated by Public Enemy-like bursts of noise. Combine that with menace like "The Tower" from Ice-T's O.G. Original Gangster, and we have a surprisingly good combination. Oh, I forgot to mention, throw some Dead Kennedys and Gil Scott-Heron in there too, THEN you have a combination.

Final song, "Water Pistol Man", sounds like an atmospheric video game from the late 90s

Audio volume issues on Deezer really hampered my enjoyment. Enjoyable album, reminds me of House of Pain. Do prefer other rap acts of the time to this however.

Nah, took much work... like trying to solve an escape room before you're allowed to listen to it

„Language of Violence“ - Das Album lässt sich nicht besser umschreiben als mit diesem Songtitel. Grimmiger Rap mit HipHop und Jazz Elementen führten zum regelmäßigen Einsatz der Skip-Taste und dem großen Wunsch diese Platte nie wieder zu hören.

This is the comprehensible, well produced, incredibly intelligent polotical Hip Hop I wanted! The only drawback is the main interest is the lyrics, not the music, and as a result it can start to get monotonous if you're not paying attention, but still this is what I want hip hop to be.

High 3.5. Starts off incredible. Tails a bit eventually; lyrics pretty consistently excellent, but not as much musical variety as I’d like and Franti isn’t *always* the most convincing. Still, he’s uniformly great, and this was an awesome listen.

3.5/5

Sort of the rap equivalent of when on twitter two people manage to stay nice to each other during a disagreement, and then some third dipshit chimes in “wow a calm rational discussion? on the hellsite???”
By which I think I mean the corniness of the project, while not a fault, isn’t on its own really cause for praise, either

Actually pretty good. Better than expected

This is weird because it feels like Chuck D got warped into a group that is just slightly different than Public Enemy. I don't mind this though, it has enough variation in it at points to be an easy enough listen, even if some of the topics feel very, VERY 90s. I'd be curious to see what happened after this album for this group, as I see high potential, but they unfortunately only made this, and I can't be bothered to check the lead guy's solo stuff.

Franti’s lyrics are still relevant today and there are some solid beats to support his iconic spoken vocal style.

But I still find it extremely exhausting sitting through more than an hour of it.
It’s not really bad. It’s just way too much.

Flawless, one of the best hip hop albums I have heard. Flow, lyrics, musical accompaniment, everything is great.
Definitely a new favourite!