Aceyalone accompanied by RJD2 - Magnificent City

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A trend that has been arising in underground hip-hop is one which invovles two renowned artists teaming up for a full album, often with these two artists having limited previous experience working together. This happened with 9th Wonder and Buckshot, MF Doom and Danger Mouse, Madlib and JayDee, etc. Perennial undergound favorites Aceyalone (ex-Freestyle Fellowship) and RJD2 have gone through a similar course, and the premise, as always, is exciting.

RJD2 has created some of the more intriguing instrumental hip-hop since debuting in the new millenium. Meanwhile, Aceyalone's peak occured more than 10 years ago. Not that Acey has completely lost it, but he's now a veteran, a proffessional. A little bit of the magic is lost.

RJD2 manages to deliver some diverse, compelling work - "All For U" has ample funk, "Fire" sounds like 80's soul, "High Lights" sounds like classic West Coast rap, "Heaven" relies mostly on a piano and strings but adds a grinding electric guitar for the chorus. Meanwhile, in almost every song, Aceyalone sounds uninspired. Not bad - not bad at all. He just sounds like he lacks direction or any real purpose.

When RJD2 falters - as is the case in "Supahero", a synth-driven beat that sounds like a demo on a Casio keyboard - Aceyalone is not there to pick up the slack.

Acey is talented, and that carries him through the album. He manages to stay away from being too cliched, but he never sounds that fresh either. And while the album is billed as "Aceyalone accompanied by RJD2", Aceyalone doesn't take command much. "Caged Bird" is one of these intances, where the beat is mostly made of percussion. Other than that, Aceyalone seems to be adapting to what RJD2 does - and he suffers from it.

There are some instances where both RJD2 and Aceyalone deliver, and the lofty expectations set for the duo are filled - such is the case with "Here and Now", but that doesn't happen often.

"Magnificient City" is almost never really bad. It's also almost never really good. For the most part, it's unremarkable, and it's periods of greatness are balanced by periods of just the opposite. Not bad, but they could have done much better.

-Luis