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Del and Tame One - photo via nahright.com

Riding the tail end of Del the Funky Homosapien’s latest wave of manic output comes Parallel Uni-verses, a collaboration between him and original Artifacts member Tame One, featuring New Jersey duo Parallel Thought on the boards. The production on the album shines, doing two legendary emcees the justice they deserve. The songs are pumped full of that classic New York hip hop old school flavor, but that well-worn sound is tainted here by cynicism and a harder edge. The majority of the beats are dark and moody, which is a refreshing take on funk/soul inspired loops that tend to be more upbeat.

At times, like in the song above, the tone is almost reminiscent of The Cold Vein, if El-P had set his production sights on the 1970s as opposed to 2070.

In many ways, the album’s sound is an appropriately updated version of early 90s hip hop, without any cheesy gimmicks or lame digital effects, instead relying on incredibly proficient, classy production — a result achieved only through the combination of Parallel Thought’s atmospheric instrumentation and Del and Tame One’s timeless lyricism. It’s as much a trip down memory lane as it is a conscious assertion that neither of these rappers have fallen off.