CD Reviews

Hi-Fidel and DJ Crucial

In the Company of Wolves | F5

By BEN WESTHOFF | January 22, 2008

3.0 Stars

This second release from Hi-Fidel and DJ Crucial is populated by pessimistic characters. “Who could have done this to me?”, Fidel sings/raps on “Jimmy,” over slow jazz piano. “I know I fucked up plenty, and not like that crackhead fucker that knocked up Wendy, or that crazy president who killed them babies.” But the LA-via-Chicago MC also can make you laugh, as on “Manther,” about a “half-man, half-panther,” and smile, as on “Small Victories,” in which he offers: “Can’t depend on friends to save the day, call me victor like RCA, champion in this struggle till I’m DOA.” Featuring underground-rap luminaries from the Midwest and West Coast including Pigeon John, Serengeti, and Black Spade, and benefitting from Crucial’s even, inspired production, In the Company of Wolves is world-weary art rap of the best kind, urging that if we’re all going down, let’s at least go down swinging.

| More

Most Popular

The Current Issue

Table of Contents

Cover Archive

Masthead | Authors | Contact us

Blogs

Where To Follow Me
Talking Politics | March 24, 2013 at 11:09 AM

Mo Takes His Turn
March 21, 2013 at 12:59 PM

[Q&A] KMFDM's Sascha Konietzko on art, Columbine and having balls
On The Download | March 18, 2013 at 3:22 PM

See this film series: The Belmont World Film Series @ Studio Cinema in Belmont
Outside The Frame | March 18, 2013 at 11:00 AM

See this film: This is Spinal Tap [with post-film talk by expert from Acoustical Society of America] @ the Coolidge
March 17, 2013 at 12:00 PM

ARTICLES BY BEN WESTHOFF

INTERVIEW: JAMIE FOXX | August 11, 2009
"Until you get a chance to define another side of your career, people will always say, 'You're doing it as a hobby.' "

INTERVIEW: JOHN LEGEND | August 05, 2009
Despite being one of the most successful R&B singers of the decade — with six Grammys and three top-selling albums — John Legend is something of an oddball.

SAY WHAT?! | September 02, 2008
Rapper Esoteric has been getting lots of death threats via e-mail recently. But he’s not too worried about them, if only because of their elementary character.

THE CALL OF THE WILD | July 28, 2008
It’s not easy being in a band whose two primary songwriters have quite different ideas about how to write an indie-rock song.

THE SILENT RAPPER | July 21, 2008
One of the most influential hip-hop MCs of all time, Rakim brought rap from its sing-songy beginnings into its late-’80s golden era with his dense lyrics and virtuoso internal rhyme structures.