Album Review: Exile- Radio

15 years ago view-show 1,198,395

exile-articleIn Hip-Hop, an MC’s best friend is the beat, and no one knows this better than Exile, (or DJ Exile as he’s sometimes called).

The producer from San Diego, California has been creating a sound all his own since the mid 90’s, and more currently, doing it with lyricist Blu behind the microphone.

His work has been on full display on albums like Below The Heavens, and most recently Blame One’s Days Chasing Days [Click to read review]. As he continues to build his reputation as a beat maker on the rise, he adds his new album Radio onto his resume.

Radio is not like the usual compilation album people would expect to hear from a producer, because Exile takes the Pete Rock approach via PeteStrumentals and constructs an entire instrumental album.

The theme of the project is that of a radio (of course) where you search for the proper station to listen to, while coming across Exile’s production in the process.

His signature style of sample chopping comes into play on pieces of music like, ‘The Sound Is God,’ ‘Stay Tuned (Here),’ ‘Watch Out! False Prophet, and the quirky sounds of ‘We’re All In Power. While other creations like, ‘It’s Coming Down,’ ‘So We Can Move,’ ‘Love Line,and ‘San Pedro Cactus’ (which happens to be one the strongest beats on the album), exploit more of his soulfulness.

At the end of the day, there really isn’t any “wrong” beat on Radio because fans of his work will be able to find exactly what they’re looking for when they tune in—and his concept to embrace an all-instrumental foundation without the help of big-named artists plastered all over his material shows that he’s more than confident in his own ability to make your head nod.

If you’re just looking for something to zone out to minus all the excess baggage Hip-Hop has now become, then this “Radio” show is definitely the right program for your ears.

Rating: 3.0

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