''Ascension'' is the first studio album by American hip hop artist

Pep Love Pep Love is a hip hop artist and a member of the Oakland, California-based hip hop collective Hieroglyphics. Personal life Born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi, Pep Love relocated with his family to Oakland, California as a teenager. Dis ...

. It was released by Hiero Imperium on July 24, 2001.

Critical reception

Nathan Rabin of ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

'' commented that "Pep Love is another

Hieroglyphics Egyptian hieroglyphs (, ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt, used for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with some 1,000 distinct characters.There were about 1,00 ...

original, even if his ambitious but flawed debut remains as notable for its unfulfilled promise as for its uneven execution." Matt Conway of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

wrote, "While ''Ascension'' is a notch below the classic debuts delivered by Love's more established teammates, it is a critical building block, as it generates renewed faith in the Hiero collective." Del F. Cowie of ''

Exclaim! ''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features in-depth coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly Exclaim! print magazine publishes 7 ...

'' praised his "commanding flow" and "rich vocabulary," stating that "he is nothing short of impressive, balancing an insistent philosophical edge with the urge to hand out verbal beat-downs." In 2014, '' Paste'' placed it at number 6 on the "12 Classic Hip-Hop Albums That Deserve More Attention" list.

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from liner notes. *

– vocals, art direction * Jay-Biz – production (1, 11), turntables (5, 10, 16) * A-Plus – production (2, 3, 5, 6, 12, 13, 16) * DJ Lex – turntables (3, 6, 8, 15, 16) * Casual – background vocals (4), vocals (14), production (14), recording *

DJ Babu Chris Oroc a.k.a. Melvin Babu (born September 17, 1974), better known as DJ Babu or DJ Babu the Dilated Junkie, is a Filipino-American DJ and producer. He is a member of the hip hop trio Dilated Peoples, with Rakaa Iriscience and Evidence and ...

– turntables (4) *

Evidence Evidence for a proposition is what supports this proposition. It is usually understood as an indication that the supported proposition is true. What role evidence plays and how it is conceived varies from field to field. In epistemology, evidenc ...

– production (4), recording (4), mixing (4) * Kurt Matlin – recording (4), mixing (4) *

Goapele Goapele Mohlabane (; born July 11, 1977), is an American soul and R&B singer-songwriter. Her name means ''to move forward'' in Setswana, a Southern African language. Early life Goapele's South African father Douglas Mohlabane was an exiled pol ...

– background vocals (5) * Bicasso – production (5) *

Tajai Tajai Massey, known by the stage name Tajai (born April 21, 1975), is an American rapper and producer. He is one of the four founding members of the Oakland, California-based underground hip hop group Souls of Mischief and, with Souls of Misch ...

– vocals (6), additional vocals (8), recording * Eric McFadden – mandolin (6), guitar (6, 12) * Mako – production (7, 9) * Erika – additional vocals (8) * Toure – production (8), recording *

Domino Dominoes is a family of tile-based games played with gaming pieces, commonly known as dominoes. Each domino is a rectangular tile, usually with a line dividing its face into two square ''ends''. Each end is marked with a number of spots (also ca ...

– production (10, 15) * The Grouch – vocals (11) * Major Terror – vocals (13) * Moses Milliyons – djembe (16) * Matt Kelley – additional recording, engineering, mixing * Ken Lee – mastering * Lady T – art direction * Gannon Graphics – design * B+ – photography

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2001 debut albums Pep Love albums Hieroglyphics Imperium Recordings albums Albums produced by A-Plus (rapper) Albums produced by Evidence (musician)