West Coast golden child
Del the Funky Homosapien teamed with rugged New Jersey underground producers
Parallel Thought once before for
Parallel Uni-Verses, his 2009 collaboration with
Artifacts member
Tame One. That album's casual vibe and nostalgic look back to hip-hop's golden days was forgettably fun and sounded like a miniature block party, due in large part to
Parallel Thought's brightly celebratory beats. Reconvening for
Attractive Sin, the East Cost/West Coast power team creates something a little more substantial than what came before, with
Del in nonstop flow mode for most of the record and production that glides between booming, raw, and even subtly psychedelic. Swinging album opener "On Momma's House" finds gorgeous disco horn and string samples floating over an enormous beat as
Del spits rhymes with a nearly freestyle feel, never pausing for a chorus or to take a breath. The
Parallel Thought crew brings a wide variety of inspired beats to the album, from the fragmented soul-jazz samples of "Get to Drillin'" to the dark funk groove of "Ownership," even eventually getting into some mellow scratchy loops and stony vibes that hark back to the early-'90s
Hieroglyphics material that
Del himself pioneered.
Del's free-form rhymes zigzag through different styles on almost every song, often hilariously and venomously shutting down the competition or fake MCs. The brutal beat of "Charlie Brown" is among the best examples of this, with thundering drums and wobbly horn samples backing up lines like "You don't hear me though/My voice sound like Charlie Brown's teacher (wampwahmpwamphwamp)/Can't reach your brain through the reefer" and "Every rhyme you ever puked was conducted by yours truly." The song, like much of the album, is relentless to the point of hypnotic, showing both collaborative parties on fire and at peak control of their talents. When
Attractive Sin slows down to take a breath, it sacrifices none of its power or authority, as with the vibrating bassline and eerie ambience of the midtempo "Show's Over." The pairing of
Parallel Thought's grimy East Coast sound and
Del's outer-limits rhyme styles ultimately results in something bigger than the sum of its parts, and off either party's most well-worn paths.
Attractive Sin finds the collaborators stretching out liberally and sounding genuinely excited and inspired by each other.