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One A.M.
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21 new or used available from $6.17
Average customer review:
Track Listing
- Certified
- Uprock
- Big Game
- Aint Right
- Jus Biz
- Blindman
- Explosive
- Under The Hammer
- 747 (Flyin)
- Interlude (Amberglis)
- Leaving
- In Accordance
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #74589 in Music
- Released on: 2003-11-04
- Number of discs: 1
- Formats: Enhanced, Extra tracks
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Diverse is a rapper you think you've heard before--not because this Chicago MC sounds similar to others, but because his presence is so powerful it seems impossible that this is only his first album. Intelligent without being arrogant, conscious without being corny, Diverse also boasts two of the greatest assets any MC could ask for: an authoritative baritone and a confident flow. These help him keep up with some of the more seasoned rappers who appear on the album, including Vast Aire (formerly of Cannibal Ox), Lyrics Born, and Jean Grae. Complementing Diverse's superior lyricism is top-notch production courtesy of a holy trinity of underground favorites: Prefuse 73, Madlib, and RJD2. They push the album from raucously energetic to sinisterly moody to laid-back cool. At a mere 11 songs plus one skit, Diverse's debut accomplishes an unlikely feat in these days of overblown hype and rampaging ego: he leaves you wanting more. --Oliver Wang
Customer Reviews
Great album
He does not reinvent the wheel, but this CD has no Bad songs, fresh energetic production. and Excellent lyrics. When it hits its mark it is awesome and it only has 1 weak song. Pick it up regardless of your tastes, you need to hear this. The cameo with Lyrics Born is awesome!
One A.M.
Chicago underground rapper Diverse possesses one of the best flows I've ever heard: quick, buttery, and rolling off the tongue so effortlessly that it makes you wonder if he's ever broken a sweat. His tone is uncommonly musical, moving up and down his register and accentuating syllables in a syncopated fashion. These days, it seems as though precious few rappers pay attention to the sound of what they say; think of Kanye West, whose rhymes have been laid down with meticulous deliberation but come out of the oven stiff and clunky. Poetry is as much about flow and as it is about content, and Diverse clearly gets that. Yet he deftly avoids the trap of "sound-for-sound's-sake" a la Busdriver or Dose One. Make no mistake: These songs mean something.
Diverse leaps from ridiculously confident salvos announcing his arrival ("Certified") to meditations on the music business ("Just Biz") to love songs ("In Accordance") with the same flair for sweet-sounding wordplay. "In Accordance" doesn't contain a single "I love you" or pet name, but "I estimate that our destination is ours to choose, this revelation is ours to lose, I hope we choose to continue our evolution" (spoken within five seconds). Those who have heard Diverse's previous placid collaborations with Mos Def and Caural may be surprised by the brashness of much of One A.M. "Certified" and "Uprock," are loud, uncompromising tracks that still throw Diverse's raps into sharp relief. "Ain't Right" and "Just Biz" find him residing closer to his comfort zone but still outside of it, rapping about the plight of man over backdrops that are simultaneously sparkling, upbeat and chilled-out. Even if Diverse makes One A.M. sound easy, one gets the sense that it represented a challenge for him that he surmounted with honors.
Being from the fraternal music community that is Chicago, Diverse receives contributions from the Midwest's finest, including RJD2, Prefuse 73 and Tortoise members/Chicago jazzbos Rob Mazurek and Jeff Parker. Jazz is indeed a noticeable influence on One A.M., but because jazz-rap had nearly died by 2003, most of the album sidesteps overt displays of it in favor of a funky, jazz-tinged spirit and icy glitch-hop grooves. Nonetheless, this 2003 album can feel like a throwback to 2000, when Talib Kweli's Reflection Eternal wowed listeners with intelligent rhymes and jazz-inflected beauty. It's a wonder how jazz-rap ever fell out of fashion, given the timelessness of jazz itself, but even Reflection Eternal feels a little dated in 2007. Not One A.M.: The music represents the past, present, and future of hip-hop all at once, and Diverse will sound fabulous until people don't listen to music anymore.
A delectable album from an intelligent MC
If there's one thing I place the most bank on when an MC to listen to, It's their vocabulary. Everything on this earth has already been said at least once, so now I feel the goal is not to say new innovative things, but say it better than any other person on the planet. Vocabulary helps this, and it's obvious from this album that Diverse has a weapons cache of it stored in that brain of his. Diverse assumes the role of supreme orator on One A.M. and doesnt disappoint. On suface level, he's battle rapping like many other MC's do (Like on certified and big game), but the way he does (he love big words and obviously has a working knowledge of the dictionary and thesaurus) is pure gold.
He's not overly preachy either. Songs like "Ain't Right" show his story telling stlye is fine tuned and "Uprock" shows he can rock the mic with mad finesse. The beats are by rjd2 madlib, and others so needles to say they hardly disappoint. Pick this up and please give this man your money. Every song on here is a gem. Several listens will have you fully appreciating the english language used to it's fullest capactiy mixed with hip hop colloquialisms.
