Reviews at Planet Urban

Robin Thicke has made a great transformation into the blue-eyed soul supremo he is today. His latest cut Magic is half blaxploitation anthem and half feel good dance floor filler. I feel in love with his under rated 2002 salvo When I Get You Alone, and although the strings on...   [more]

Experimental music… it’s something you seldom encounter in mainstream music; that is, of course, unless it’s N.E.R.D.. It has been five years since the release of their last album, Fly Or Die, but Pharrell, Chad and Shae have brought back their original sounds with the synesthesia inspired title Seeing Sounds....   [more]

Critically-acclaimed documentary maker Errol Morris continues to question the American military complex in Standard Operating Procedure, his follow up to 2004’s Best Feature Documentary Oscar-winner The Fog of War. This time Morris turns his attention to the now infamous pictures taken by American soldiers of the 372nd Military Police Company...   [more]

In an era where young Hip Hop artists are releasing more albums than many of their veteran counterparts have in an entire lifetime, it is refreshing to hear of an artist who has taken the time to perfect their craft, waiting for the right time to launch themselves onto the...   [more]

The princess of R&B is back after a four year hiatus with her fourth studio release The Declaration. She has spread her wings and ventured out from her Murder Inc crew for the first time. Irv Gotti and Ja Rule are nowhere to be found and instead Ashanti has worked...   [more]

There was a time, in the not too distant past, when the West Indies cricket team was the best in the world. They dominated; they had style, a style that was distinctly theirs. But over time their dominance diminished. The real reason for this lies in the fact that over...   [more]

Ever thrown on the radio and said to yourself, “I know that voice, that’s …”? I did this when I threw on Drapht’s album Brothers Grimm. From the first few syllables I felt like I was listening to Pressure from Hilltop Hoods after he had scooped up some helium!...   [more]

A year after signing with Obese Records, Spit Syndicate is the latest hip-hop act to make a mark on the Australian scene. The two MCs in the group, Nick and Jimmy have found a way to apply well-constructed rhymes that are both thought-provoking and entertaining.   [more]

Expanding on the old-school inspired futurism of his past two group releases with partner-in-crime 7L, respected Boston emcee/producer Esoteric has ventured to the land of the rising sun for his adventurous solo project, Esoteric Vs. Japan: The Pterodactyl Takes Tokyo!. Not merely using the album as an excuse...   [more]

The iconic Mobb Deep duo of Havoc and Prodigy have been quiet as a group since their G-Unit debut Blood Money was met with a resounding thud back in 2006. However, this backburner status within Fiddy’s label structure hasn’t seemed to have stopped either of the Queensbridge repping veterans from...   [more]

Who says religious Hip Hop is automatically Christian Hip Hop? For those that share such a philosophy and have overlooked the many African-American Muslim MCs, prepare to be proved wrong by Killah Priest (a Jew) – if you have not already within the ten years since the release of his...   [more]

You Don’t Mess With The Zohan could’ve gone one of two ways – it could’ve been horribly embarrassing for all concerned (see Adam Sandler in Going Overboard), or it could’ve been halfway decent (see Adam Sandler in Happy Gilmore, Wedding Singer). Thankfully, it leaned more towards the latter,...   [more]

The third studio album from the philosophical yet grounded Ms Erykah Badu is a powerhouse of an album but not necessarily in the literal sense. New Amerykah – Part One (Part Two is entitled Return of the Ankh and due out late ’08) is Badu’s most eclectic release to date....   [more]

The fastidious duo of emcee Naledge and producer Double-O proved with their refreshing debut outing, School Was My Hustle, that they could make the grade. Now two years on, following a label jump from the revamped Rawkus to indie stalwart Duck Down, Kidz In The Hall are out to further assert themselves into...   [more]

It has been a four year wait but Usher is back with his fifth studio release Here I Stand. Though this may seem a considerable gap for such an established artist, having sold over 30 million albums worldwide dating back to the mid ‘90s, he did not disappear from...   [more]

The rap game is proving now more than ever to be a young man’s game. It is fitting then that Sydney-based Hip Hop act Mind Over Matter, consisting of Willow and Smiles Again,...   [more]

Being an M. Night Shyamalan movie, it’s hard to know how much of the plot I can reveal without giving the whole story away. Try describing The Sixth Sense without giving the ending away and not making the whole thing sound lame. Sure, The Happening isn’t like The Sixth Sense...   [more]

WEEZY F. BABY! ‘The Best Rapper Alive’ has returned with the final installment of his Tha Carter trilogy, with Tha Carter III. Despite the countless criticism balanced with the many praises Lil’ Wayne garners, this piece of work may potentially be a classic. The first thing any fan would...   [more]

It has been a long time since the days of “ladies first” and the fight for equality between genders in the testosterone-fuelled rap game. The time of the socially aware and outspoken MCs of the female gender (think MC Lyte, Queen Latifah and then  Lauryn...   [more]

Migrating between his native land Sweden and the U.S. seems to have done MC/producer Chords some good, as he follows up from his middle-of-the-road debut (The Garden Around The...   [more]