''Back to Dust'' is a studio album by

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York City ...

-based rapper

Sev Statik Joseph T. Evans (born December 11, 1971), known professionally as Sev Statik and Stu Dent, is a hip hop musician and promoter from Albany, New York. Active as a rapper since the early 1990s, he has performed and recorded both as a solo artist and ...

and

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

-based producer

DJ Dust DJ Dust is the DJ and producer for the underground hip-hop groups Mars ILL and Deepspace5. His real name is Nathan Corrona. DJ Dust is known for his hard hitting "boom bap" style of production, often mixing samples from obscure 1960s and 1970s ...

, originally released on October 9, 2007, through

Rawkus Records Rawkus Records was an American hip hop record label known for starting the careers of many rappers. Rawkus started in 1995 with releases in hip-hop, drum and bass and fun-dustrial (Dystopia One). Label heads Brian Brater and Jarret Myer then s ...

. It was the fourth studio release by Sev Statik and the second studio release for DJ Dust. ''Back to Dust'' features numerous guest appearances, including Manchild and Playdough of

Deepspace5 Deepspace5 is an underground hip hop supergroup formed in 1997 and currently composed of Beat Rabbi, Manwell?, Freddie Bruno, Listener, Mars ILL (a stand-alone duo consisting of Manchild and DJ Dust), Playdough, Sintax.the.Terrific, Sivio ...

Theory Hazit Thearthur Readié Washington, (born November 3, 1978), better known by the stage name Theory Hazit is an American Christian hip hop artist from Cincinnati, Ohio. History Born as Thearthur Readie Washington IV in Winchester, Clark County, Kent ...

Supastition Supastition is an American underground hip hop artist from Greenville, North Carolina. He has also recorded under the name of Kam Moye and Blackmel (in earlier years). He has appeared on songs with the likes of KRS-One, The RZA, Ras Kass, Te ...

, LMNO of

The Visionaries Visionaries is an underground hip hop crew from Los Angeles, California. The crew formed in 1995, and have since released four full-length albums on Up Above Records, and their fifth album "V" on their newly re-formed label Visionaries Crew, In ...

, and Raphi, Griffin, and Triune of

Tunnel Rats The tunnel rats were American, Australian, New Zealander, and South Vietnamese soldiers who performed underground search and destroy missions during the Vietnam War. Later, similar teams were used by the Soviet Army during the Soviet–Afghan ...

. The album was selected by Rawkus for inclusion in its "Rawkus 50" promotional campaign, and was released as a digital download. A physical version of the album was released on July 7, 2008, through

Braille Braille (Pronounced: ) is a tactile writing system used by people who are visually impaired, including people who are Blindness, blind, Deafblindness, deafblind or who have low vision. It can be read either on Paper embossing, embossed paper ...

's Hip Hop IS Music label. ''Back to Dust'' met with critical acclaim. In 2010,

released a

remix A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...

ed version of the album.

Background

Sev Statik was active as a rapper in the Albany area since the early 1990s. After released two EPs in 1996, in 1997 he co-founded the supergroup

and joined the

West Coast hip hop West Coast hip hop is a regional genre of hip hop music that encompasses any artists or music that originated in the West Coast region of the United States. West Coast hip hop began to dominate from a radio play and sales standpoint during the ea ...

collective A collective is a group of entities that share or are motivated by at least one common issue or interest, or work together to achieve a common objective. Collectives can differ from cooperatives in that they are not necessarily focused upon an ...

. In 2002, Sev Statik released his debut studio album, ''

Speak Life ''Speak Life'' is the debut studio album by Albany, New York-based hip hop musician Sev Statik, released on November 9, 2002, through Uprok Records. While Sev Statik, real name Joseph Evans, had released a previous studio album, '' Altered State' ...

''. Two more studio recordings followed: '' Slow Burn'' in 2005 and ''Sliver LP'' in 2007. DJ Dust was active as a DJ for the group Indianapolis group deadpoetsociety during the mid-1990s. In 1998, while at a conference, he met Manchild, a member of The Pride and a co-founder of Deepspace5. The two founded the project Mars Ill, and DJ Dust also joined the Deepspace5 collective. DJ Dust released a solo album, ''No Fame'', in 2006.

Release

''Back to Dust'' was first released on October 9, 2007, through

. The album was selected by the label as part of its Rawkus 50 campaign, a program in which fifty hip hop artists were selected from submissions to the label. Following the October 9 release date, the album was uploaded to

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

on October 16. Sev Statik and DJ Dust also partnered with the rapper

's Hip Hop IS Music to release a

digipak Optical disc packaging is the packaging that accompanies CDs, DVDs, and other formats of optical discs. Most packaging is rigid or semi-rigid and designed to protect the media from scratches and other types of exposure damage. Jewel case A ...

version of the album. This version came out the following year on July 7.

Style and lyrics

The album was described falling within

alternative Alternative or alternate may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Alternative (''Kamen Rider''), a character in the Japanese TV series ''Kamen Rider Ryuki'' * ''The Alternative'' (film), a 1978 Australian television film * ''The Alternative ...

and

underground Underground most commonly refers to: * Subterranea (geography), the regions beneath the surface of the Earth Underground may also refer to: Places * The Underground (Boston), a music club in the Allston neighborhood of Boston * The Underground (S ...

forms of

Christian hip hop Christian hip hop (originally gospel rap, also known as Christian rap, gospel hip hop or holy hip hop) is a subgenre of contemporary Christian music and hip hop music. It emerged from urban contemporary music and Christian media in the United S ...

. ''

Christianity Today ''Christianity Today'' is an evangelical Christian media magazine founded in 1956 by Billy Graham. It is published by Christianity Today International based in Carol Stream, Illinois. ''The Washington Post'' calls ''Christianity Today'' "evange ...

'' found the style similar to that of Mars Ill, Deepspace5, Tunnel Rats, and LPG. The production uses a diverse assortment of musical elements, including

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

-style piano, frenetic drum kits, soulful vocals,

harpsichord A harpsichord ( it, clavicembalo; french: clavecin; german: Cembalo; es, clavecín; pt, cravo; nl, klavecimbel; pl, klawesyn) is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. This activates a row of levers that turn a trigger mechanism ...

licks, and

spoken word Spoken word refers to an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a late 20th century continuation of an ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetics of ...

and

a cappella ''A cappella'' (, also , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Ren ...

passages. DJ Dust also made extensive examples of mid- to late-1990s rock, jazz, and

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

, as well as excerpts of preaching. While some tracks featured complex layers of soundscapes, others are very minimalistic and simple in their construction. The title of the recording, ''Back to Dust'', is a reference to , where God reminds Adam that he will return to dust upon his death. Working from this theme, Sev Statik approaches a diversity of interconnected topics, such as mass media brainwashing and family problems, but highlights life, death, and creation throughout.

Reception

''Back to Dust'' was critically acclaimed upon its released. ''Christianity Today'' awarded the album four-and-a-half stars out of five, calling it "Alternative rap at its finest." The reviewer, Andree Farias, said that he was hard pressed to single out any favorites, as "Cut after cut, bar after bar, the tandem offers some of the most redemptive hip-hop the Christian scene has seen in recent memory." He did caveat that the appeal of the album might not be immediate, as it needs to be taken in and savored slowly. Jerry Bolton of The Phantom Tollbooth gave the album a perfect score of five stars, exclaiming that "''Back To Dust'', quite simply, is so good that I couldn't believe my ears. It took a month of regular rotation to quiet my cynicism and fully agree with my initial feeling: this is the best collection of beats & rhymes this year."

Track listing

Remixed version

On May 29, 2010, Sev Statik released a version of the album

ed by

. Originally, Sev Statik's fellow

member Dert was scheduled to release the album.

Track listing

References

{{Authority control 2007 albums Rawkus Records albums Sev Statik albums Underground hip hop albums Alternative hip hop albums by American artists 2010 remix albums