| Prince Paul A Prince Among Thieves |
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 | Tracklist:
1 Tariq's Dilemma (Intro)
2 Pain
3 How It All Started
4 Steady Slobbin'
5 Just Another Day
6 What U Got (The Demo)
7 The Hustles On
8 MC Hustler
9 The Call
10 The Other Line
11 Crazy Lou's Hideout
12 Weapon World
13 My Big Chance
14 War Party
15 Count Macula
16 Macula's Theory
17 Mr. Large
18 Can You Handle It
19 Put The Next Man On
20 I Was In
21 My First Day
22 More Than U Know
23 Room 69
24 Mood For Love
25 The Bust
26 The Men In Blue
27 Central Booking
28 Handle Your Time
29 The Rev
30 Sermon
31 Showdown
32 You Got Shot
33 Every Beginning Must Have An Ending
34 The New Joint (DJ's Delite)
35 A Prince Among Thieves
Release Date: 1999 | |
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On 1 Lists
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| Summary: Some decent songs and a good concept but a lot of filler and skits ruin the album's flow |
Concept albums are obviously much more commonly associated with progressive rock than hip-hop. In fact, many people would probably struggle to name a single hip-hop concept album except perhaps Deltron 3030 or perhaps Dr. Octagonecologyst. A Prince Among Thieves is actually the second concept album from ex-De La Soul producer and Gravediggaz member Prince Paul.
While his first and his debut album, Psychoanalysis: What is It? covered a vague topic of different mental conditions such as schizophrenia, A Prince Among Thieves is much more ambitious. The whole album follows a single plot set in the seedy underground with a cast of drug dealers and addicts, crooked cops, weapons dealers and so on. Without giving too much away, the plot involves a young rapper named Tariq who is attempting to gain $1000 to put together a demo tape before a meeting with the Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA. However, trouble starts when he goes for help to his jealous friend True who drags Tariq down into drug dealing.
Each character is played by a different rapper and it truly is a star-studded cast. RZA plays himself, Kool Keith plays Crazy Lou, a weapons dealer, in his own hilarious tongue-in-cheek yet slightly sinister style and De La Soul play crack addicts. There are even more guest rappers, including Xzibit and Big Daddy Kane. Perhaps the biggest strength of the album is despite the talented cast, none of the rappers overshadow each other at all or steal the limelight. Even the more unknown rappers such as Breezy Brewin' who plays Tariq and Sha who plays True hold up admirably well placed next to such big names and don’t really sound any weaker at all. The lyrics aren’t hugely impressive but tell the story well and are easy enough to follow.
The plot is held together by skits. While this keeps the story easy to follow and gripping, there are far too many of them. Including the skits, there are 35 songs on the 73 minute long album. Even without the skits the album would drag and, apart from progressing the story, they do little other than break up the album’s flow.
Prince Paul does a good job of preventing the album from getting dull and monotonous by creating a hugely eclectic variety of different beats for the songs. Prince Paul samples everything from mournful violins to jazzy pianos. What links the different styles together is an overall cinematic feel. While this does give the album an epic sound it does at times come dangerously close to becoming too glitzy and unsubtle, lacking the grittiness and darkness needed for the themes contained in the album. However, a lot of the music is very catchy and easy to get into, while the quality does vary a lot.
Overall, A Prince Among Thieves contains some good songs and an engaging enough story but often seems to focus more on the story than the music. The album is plagued by filler and unnecessary skits that ruin the flow. The huge amount of different styles and guest rappers help to stop it dragging but it definitely is too long. With its long running length and focus on story it is definitely an album you have to listen to intently from start to finish, otherwise it will probably lose your intention. It’s definitely worth listening to, but if you want to get a first hip-hop concept album, go for the superior Deltron 3030 instead.
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| Recent reviews by this author | | | |
Album Rating: 4
I think you might be missing the point. Its a hip-hopera so of course there are plenty of skits. You couldnt even count them as filler since they add to the story. This album should not be a 2.5, but a 3.5 at the very least.
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
I wanted to like it more, I really did. I just think the skits get really boring once you know the story.
| | | Album Rating: 4
Ohh yeah, you never got back to me about Dark Magus. what did you think?
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