Ever since I first heard Geo on the Native Guns album, I have been trying to spread the news about how dope the duo known as Blue Scholars are.  I've been buying their music, gear, and metaphorically yelling from rooftops about the good hip hop that people are missing out on.  I was one of the people that kicked in early for their Kickstarter funded album, Cinemetropolis,  and my first reaction when I got the early release I was a little disappointed.  I'm glad to say that I hit that one magical album listen-through where it all made sense, and I'd be willing to put this album's quality up against any of the older ones.

That being said, for the uninitiated I'd still recommend starting from the beginning.  That may be counter-intuitive if I'm saying Cinemotropolis is just as good, but sometimes certain albums are just easier to dive right into than others.  The other albums are more familiar to older hip hop heads as far as beats and cadences and more straight forward.  While Cinemetropolis seems to carry the same themes and message, it also seems to have a more personal and individual feel in both the actual topics and beats and the album as a whole.  This may make it less accessible or maybe even a little unfamiliar at times, but if you give the album a chance you'll start to see the effort and care crafted into it.

Cinemetropolis and Yuri Kochiyama were the first stand out cuts, but now most of them have really stuck with me.  Seeing the Fou Lee video bumped that up as one of my favorites now, too.  As a frame of reference, some other albums which I didn't take to very quickly even though I was previously a fan, but ended later ended up really liking: Makaveli, Thug Life, Lifesavas (Spirit In Stone), Sweatshop Union (Water Street), and probably a bunch more that just took the right mood for me to be open to them.