Spearhead

After fronting groups like the Beatnigs and Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, Bay Area mainstay Michael Franti found his biggest commercial success with this, the first Spearhead record released in '94. Flexing intelligent, conscious wordplay over exotic beats (think Arrested Development or the Fugees), Home is hip-hop that makes you think.

Bob Dylan's "self portrait," Miles Davis' The Man With the Horn: For the hip-hop nation,
Public Enemy's Muse Sick-n-Hour Mess Age is a comparable heartbreaker – a stunning
plummet of the gods from the clouds. An almost eerie failure. Not a wild, strange
experiment that didn't take – much worse: a mediocrity. The Good Book says that those
who live by the sword perish by the sword: There may be poetic justice, then, i... More >

Recyclable Michael Franti--he's black, he's grooveful, he's Gil Scott-Heron ("Crime To Be Broke in America," "People in the Middle") (Grade - *)