| Item Summary | Best known for his work as the MC/Producer of the group All Natural, cap D is back with a new installment, the third in a trilogy of solo hip-hop albums. Throughout his career, cap has authored a diverse array of hip-hop ranging from jazzy ("50 Years") to soulful ("This Is Our Time") and from stories ("Writer's Block") to politics ("Insomnia"), but Return of the Renegade finds him hitting hard with rugged, hardcore hip-hop reminiscent of the golden era of the WuTang Clan. Packed with 14 bonafide street bangers, cap puts his foot on the accelerator and doesn't let up until taking listeners on a journey through the southside streets of Chicago.
Having worked with some of hip-hop's finest producers (Kev Brown, Illmind, No ID and J. Rawls), cap D has never failed to deliver his signature flow, wordplay and worldview. In 2002 cap teamed up with the Molemen production team to drop the creative gem "Writer's Block." Two years later cap served up the politcally-charged "Insomnia", an album that received praise from outlets as diverse as MSNBC.com and Time Magazine, and led to cap being interviewed live on CNN by Betty Nguyen for his political views and Muslim faith. Never one to deliver the same album twice, on "Return of the Renegade" cap once again breaks the mold and returns with gritty album inspired in part by his travels to China, experiences in Chicago and love of nofrills hip-hop. The result is a sonic adventure that drips with Asian sonic-influences laced with razor sharp lyrics.
As a Muslim hip-hop artist who truly lives and breathes the culture, cap D is in the vein of other Chicago Muslim MCs such as Lupe Fiasco and Rhymefest, who makes a cameo appearance on "Return of the Renegade". Guest producers include J.Rawls and Yuani and other guest MCs include ANI's Iomos Marad (who's collaborations with cap D are already legendary) and OneBeLo, another fellow Muslim MC and veteran of the underground hip-hop circut. On "The Answer," cap and OneBeLo nonchalantly rip a stripped down boom-bap track in an effortless manner that comes from being true veterans of the mic. "Ups & Downs" delivers the deft wordplay that has earned cap fans from NY to Tokyo, while songs such as "Bright Lights" and "Blow" epitomize the hardcore intensity that is all-pervasive throughout the CD, and, never one to shy away from politics, cap travels back in time to try to stop the assassination of Malcolm X on "Shabazz".
The Chicago Tribune named cap D one of "15 Hidden Talents" in the Chicago arts community, and the Chicago Sun-Times deemed him one of 30 people to watch under the age of 30. cap is an MC, producer, co-owner of All Natural, Inc., attorney and intellectual, having lectured on subjects ranging from hip-hop to religion at various colleges and universities including Northwestern University, DePaul University, the University of Illinois (Champaign campus), Chicago State University and Columbia College. In short, cap has earned the title as the hardest working man in hip-hop. |
|
