LessThanNick1's Full Review: Hi-Teknology [PA] by Hi-Tek
DJ Hi Tek is one of my favorite hip-hop producers. The two albums that he has done, Blackstar’s Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Blackstar and Talib Kweli’s Reflection Eternal (Train of Thought) are two of my favorites. Hi Tek consistently makes quality beats. I slept on his solo album for a few months. I forgot about it until the end of 2001. People were doing their ‘best of 2001’ lists and Hi Tek’s solo album Hi-Teknology came up quite a bit on people’s best hip-hop albums lists. I went out and bought it about a month ago. I’m not quite disappointed, but I’m not blown away either.
Hi Tek is capable of making bangers (“down for the count”), but for the most part his beats are on the more laid back, soulful, jazzy tip. I found Hi-Teknology to be a lot more mellow than Hi Tek’s other works (not that his other stuff was every real hardcore). Mellow isn’t a bad thing, we can’t listen to M.O.P. all the time. I’m reviewing the production first, because Hi Tek makes beats. He doesn’t rhyme. Actually he rhymes a few times on a couple tracks, but he’s not really good. I usually put lyrics before beats, but I’m giving beats a little more weight this time because it’s Hi Tek.
There are some really good guest appearances on Hi-Teknology. The first two tracks on the album “Sun God” and “Get Back Pt. 2” are the two best songs on the album. They feature Common and Talib Kweli just going off with some really solid rhymes. “Get Back Pt. 2” is one of my favorite songs of 2001. Talib Kweli just drops some verbal bombs on this one. There are also some very mediocre guest appearances. Buckshot, Main Flow, Cormega, and Mos Def come to mind. Mos Def is one of my favorite MCs, he doesn’t really bring the real sh*t on the two tracks he appears.
There is a decent amount of R&B on this album. I’m not a big fan of R&B, but Hi Tek’s awesome beats make it listenable. Jonell’s “Round & Round” actually got some airplay on my local fake-thug pop-rap radio station. Although it was the “Round & Round” remix with Method Man. If I wasn’t so biased again R&B I think I would enjoy Hi-Teknology a little more.
Clocking in at a little over 45 minutes, Hi-Teknology is pretty short. If all the songs were great, I wouldn’t complain, but about half the songs feature either mediocre MCs or R&B stuff. That leaves only about 20 minutes of quality hip-hop.
I really wanted to love this album, but I don’t. Beats cannot carry an album. The beats are so good, but the mediocre MCs and the R&B drag this album down. Buy this album for the beats and for “Sun God” and “Get Back Pt. 2”. Those two songs are practically worth the purchase of this album. My expectations weren’t met, but that’s because I was expecting another Blackstar album. This once again prooves my point that good beats can’t carry an album.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
![Hi-Teknology [PA] by Hi-Tek](http://di1.shopping.com/images1/pi/64/77/0a/2002195359-177x150-0-0.jpg)
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.