Handsome Boy Modeling School Album: “White People: Instrumental”

Everything about this is perfect..ok a few of the skits could go. The actual songs - those are perfect. From The opening sample of if it wasn't for you, the incredible mike patton song right after.. Amazing piano in class system. I can't get the mars volta song on here out of my head.. The best part is that when mars volta or ..linkin park is on a track..it sounds nothing like their own bands.. Prince paul and dan the automator are badass. I'm ranting.

I was introduced into Handsome Boy Modeling School's "White People" shortly after the 2005 release by Gorillaz, "Demon Days". Blending in the talents of 30-some outstanding artists throughout the album's 16 tracks, Handsome Boy Modeling School comes back with an extraordinary album that bends genres (comedy included) and presents you with a aurprising and imaginative musical jewel we are not typically in front of.

Take the intro and the outro, as an example: with the voice of Father Guido Sarducci, you won't be able to keep a straight face. Other examples are the Gorillaz-sounding "The World's Gone Mad", the straight-up R&B piece "I've Been Thinking", or the 7+ minute long piece "Rock And Roll (Could Never Hip Hop Like This)" where Vivaldi's 1st movement of "The Four Seasons" meets hip-hop like you cannot imagine.

The list goes on and on, and so do the pleasant musical surprises. "White People" is more than just for white people. It is quite a gender-bending masterpiece meant to break musical ground for all ages and races.

This album is everything rap has been missing since the days of Digital Underground, old Beastie Boys, and thus forth. Interesting beats that keep the flow well, great story lines, and GREAT Camios...I find this album highly pleasurable to listen to, this is one of those rare albums that i start to listen to and next thing i know it is over!

It's another great album from Prince Paul and Automator, but I don't think it's quite as strong as So Hows your girl. "If it wasnt for you" and "the worlds gone mad" are great in the same sense that "magnetizing" and "the projects" were, but White People has more songs like "The Truth" (which is amazing) and "sunshine" and theyre not nearly as good. White People has way less rapping, and way more comedy skits, some of which are hilarious and some of which are just annoying. The biggest problem I have with this cd is that for some reason they chose to let Linkin Park perform on half of an otherwise decent track ("rock and roll, pt2"). They tried to show the connection between hip hop and rock music, but they chose the worst example. After avoiding the song entirely, I decided to import the song in to garageband (light music editing program for mac) and cut out the linkin park sections and the tim meadows thing at the end. tim medows is okay, but if they wanted that thing on there they shouldve just made it another track rather than tacking it on to the end of that song.

Ahh now here's an album I can vibe to. I've been waiting on this album since the first time I heard "So How's Your Girl" and let me tell you I was not disappointed. Was it Del's flow on "The World's Gone Mad" or was it the fact that it's followed up a couple tracks later by another Hiero crew member Casual on "It's Like That"? Or could it be the smooth vibe of tracks like "Breakdown" and "I've Been Thinkin"? I don't know but something about this album just blows me away, even though I know it's not perfect all the way through I feel it deserves 5 stars for creativity and hip-hop spirit. Applause to Prince Paul & the Automator