Anyone who knows the music of Matthew Shipp; knows what a creative and talented Musician he truely is. Matthew has always been associated with "Free-Jazz" and the "Avant-Garde". With this new CD,which I feel is a groundbreaking work; it still fits into those categories,but with a new twist. I can honestly say that I have never been a fan of Rap/Hip-Hop Music; and this is not your typical Hip-Hop CD. The Rappers on this CD convey "Positive" messages without any profanity or perversion. They remind me of the old recordings from Gil Scott-Heron. The Rap/Messages are done with a seriuosness that is much needed in this Genre of Music. What is also great,is that the music is being played with "Real" Musicians. Most of the tracks do contain Rap/Vocals, and a few instrumental tracks as well. I highly recommend this CD to Fans of Rap/Hip-Hop and Jazz to realize that there is something "Powerful" and "Positive" that can come out of creating Music from the "Soul".

I was not familiar with Matthew Shipp when I picked up this record... I'm a big Anti-Pop fan. The idea of a collaboration between a hip-hop group and a jazz pianist sounded really great-- and honestly, the results of that idea sound even greater. The album is like a giant struggle with, or dialogue with, the conventions of loops and 4/4 rhythm. The instrumentation is simply amazing, and so is the emceeing, and so is the beat programming/synthetic contribution... everyone involved in this project was really willing to drop their pants a bit and see what happens. The result is a highly diverse recording that dances around all classification and expectation. Not all of it sounds tight, but it's tight enough. I've listened to it about ten times now and I still can't get over how well the Anti-Pop Consortium is sticking faithfully to the concept its name implies. Fans of abstract and underground hip hop who are looking to see how the envelope is being pushed should definitely pick this up.

I have to start this review by noting M.Sayyid and Earl Blaize's abscence on this release. High Priest and Beans foot the Antipop's bill here, which in no way dissappoints, but shows a noticeable difference in the directions this group is moving. And possibly indicates Blaize n' Sayyid are working on their own concoction to bomb the Hiphop World with....?
Matthew Shipp is a great musician for these MCs to collaborate with. Shipp's band packs a tight backbone-consisting of upright bass, drums, vibes, trumpet and flute. Shipp's piano progressions switch from sounding Far-Eastern-ish to 40s-50s swing-ish, but when Priest gets out the Moog synth on 'SVP'(trk5) it makes for a wild journey. Shipp punches out a repetitive, eerie but catchy, pattern on the ivories while Priest creates a bassline out of crooked drops and squirts, eventually meshing into a beautiful harmony. 'Staph'(trk 2) is reminiscent of the Roots earlier Illadelph style, and Beans breaks it down, staying right in time with the kick drum.
This(10 trk,60min.)album truly serves as a fat hold-over installment for any Antipop Consortium fan who can't wait till March for Beans solo album to pop, and if you're reading this after such time; this album is worth buying for the affore-mentioned 'SVP' and 'Coda'trk6 alone. 'Coda' is one of the best Priest songs I've heard to date(and I own many,mind you, 12" incld). I don't believe Shipp even contributes on this track, so it's full force, pure produced Antipop. Look for the rest of the crew's solo efforts, too. These are the pioneers of the soundtrack to the inevitible crumbling of the now-present-bling-culture that seems to infest every aspect of Hollywood(and the Music Industry).