producers: elusive

Let's see, Dreamweavers vs. Binary Star. In a flooded market of hip hop releases, this was a decision I was faced with a few weeks back. After ordering Binary Star, I came to find that it was defective, and asked the store I bought it from if i could return it for an exchange. I was informed that there were no Binary Star's left, and I would have to wait for them to come back in. Cool I thought. That is until I had the pleasure of catching some audio of Dreamweavers on the net, and I went back and asked if I could just get the Dreamweavers instead of another Binary Star. Done deal. And even though Binary Star was a nice release, I don't regret my decision a bit.

I gotta admit, I wasn't exactly checkin for this album when I first saw it, because I had bought L'Roneous's solo album "Imaginarium" off the strength of the buzz that swarmed around it. But after listening to it for myself, I did in fact agree that L'Roneous was extremely nice on the vocals, but I did not nearly feel the album as a whole the way others had. Call me crazy or whatever. Having said that, in my eyes, Dreamweavers is a much more enjoyable album, for one simple fact: the production on Dreamweavers is simply more enjoyable to me. I had never heard any of Elusive's previous work, so this album served as an introduction of sorts to his work.

First things first. Let me just get this out there, L'Roneous is a remarkable mc. His flow is one of the most effortless I have ever had the pleasure of hearing. He rides a track like he was born with a mic in his hand. Yes, those are very high praises, but you just can't front, L'Roneous is nice with his. But let's not dump the other half of the Dreamweavers into the backseat, as Elusive more than holds his own on this project.

Cuts like "Behind My Brown Windows," "Sub Incision," "Dreamweavers," and "They Say" (the only track that feautures a guest emcee in the form of The Grouch) all bang, as both L'Roneous and Elusive share the spotlight, since both bring the ingredients to make a proper banger. If I did have to nitpick and point out the less-spectacular tracks, I would have to go with "Heavyweights," as the drums seem a little tame compared to the rest of the album, and "C02" which also differs from the rest of the pack as it's tempo is noticeably slower. But like I said, this is really nitpicking.

Is this album really worth you're hard earned money? I say yes, but take into account that I found "Imaginarium" just an ok album. Gauge how much you feel L'Roneous, add on some nice production work courtesy of Elusive, and you have the equation for a tight album. This definitly gets the thumbs up.