Time is one of those MCs who acts like he doesn’t give a fuck what you think of him. His deeply analytical and introspective lyrics coupled with his total lack of regard for anything that sounds appealing gives the impression of an underground renegade. On the other hand, how many Slug clones can we put up with before enough is enough?
I will say one thing though, dude is smart as hell, and he knows it. Throughout his third solo album’s 18 tracks he does everything in his power to make his intelligence clear to the listener. This is where his renegade act runs thin. While he at times shows some real lyrical power and honesty, the more you listen to Time’s music you begin to realize that he writes to impress a very small, very pretentious subgroup of hip hop heads. I’m not the biggest Atmosphere fan, but I respect their music and I respect Slug as an MC and a hip hop pioneer. Time is no Slug, no matter how much he may embody his style and lyrical content.
One of the main concerns I have with Time’s music is the fact that it shows little regard for auditory aesthetics. His perpetually off-beat flow caused by his tendency to try to fit too many lyrics into each measure quickly becomes downright annoying to listen to. The fact he delivers those lyrics in a snarly, nasally voice only compounds the problem. While the production is simplistic and amateurish, the buzzing electronic basslines and gritty drum programming is actually kind of infectious. It’s an underground vintage kinda sound and it works perfectly for what Time has attempted to do here. The problem is that as original as Time thinks he is, we’ve heard this all before from countless other underground artists. After eighteen tracks of self-doubt, media-bashing, and conspiracy theories, you just want the guy to shut the fuck up already. And by the way, isn’t it ironic that an album as anti-commercial as this one features Auto-tune on multiple tracks? You go figure it out.
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