"Thirty Eight sounds like Detroit transitioning from Heroin to Crack in the late 70s and early 80s."
Apollo Brown's Thirty Eight is a contemporary throwback, inhabiting the realm of reverent reinvention and innovation. It deftly bridges the gap between '70s Blaxploitation soundtracks (e.g. Curtis Mayfield or Marvin Gaye) and the hip-hop records that sampled from them.
The tracks on Thirty Eight are presented in gritty, heavily saturated Technicolor, the scratches and cigarette burns as purposeful as they are happily accidental. These are suites sounding from long barrels held by lone men lurking in grimy project hallways. Tinged with revenge and regret, shrouded in thick tendrils of hollow-point smoke, the songs have all the makings of...