To The East, Blackwards
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''To The East, Blackwards'' is the debut studio album by American hip hop group
X Clan X Clan (formerly stylized as XCLAN and often incorrectly spelled X-Clan) is a hip hop group from Brooklyn, New York, originally consisting of Grand Verbalizer Funkin' Lesson Brother J, Professor X the Overseer, Paradise the Architect, and Su ...
, released on April 24, 1990, by
4th & B'way Records 4th & B'way Records (pronounced and spelled out completely as Fourth and Broadway Records in the UK) is a US-based subsidiary of Island Records that specialised in street-oriented music such as hip hop. Established in 1984, it was the flagshi ...
and Island Records. It was produced entirely by the group and recorded at I.N.S. Recording Studios in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
. ''To the East, Blackwards'' charted at number 97 on the '' Billboard'' Top Pop Albums. "Raise the Flag", the album's
lead single A lead single (also known as a debut single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date. Release s ...
, peaked at number 12 on the
Hot Rap Singles Hot Rap Songs (formerly known as Hot Rap Tracks and Hot Rap Singles) is a chart released weekly by ''Billboard'' in the United States. It lists the 25 most popular hip-hop/rap songs, calculated weekly by airplay on rhythmic and urban radio stati ...
.


Music and lyrics

The album's production is characterized by witty
scratching Scratching, sometimes referred to as scrubbing, is a DJ and turntablist technique of moving a vinyl record back and forth on a turntable to produce percussive or rhythmic sounds. A crossfader on a DJ mixer may be used to fade between two record ...
and funk beats, including samples of music by
Parliament-Funkadelic Parliament-Funkadelic (abbreviated as P-Funk) is an American music collective of rotating musicians headed by George Clinton, primarily consisting of the funk bands Parliament and Funkadelic, both active since the 1960s. Their distinctive ...
, Zapp, and
Roy Ayers Roy Ayers (born September 10, 1940) is an American funk, soul, and jazz composer, vibraphone player, and music producer. Ayers began his career as a post-bop jazz artist, releasing several albums with Atlantic Records, before his tenure at Po ...
. The group includes producers Grand Architect Paradise and The Provider Sugar Shaft, lead MC
Brother J Brother J (born Jason Hunter) is an American hip hop artist and is a member of the American hip hop group X Clan, which used to include Professor X the Overseer, Paradise the Architect, and Sugar Shaft. In 2016, ''Design & Trend'' magazine name ...
, and
Professor X the Overseer Lumumba Carson (August 4, 1956 – March 17, 2006), known by his stage names Baba Professor X the Overseer, Professor X, or PXO was born the son of Brooklyn-based activist Sonny Carson. Carson was a founding member of the hip hop group X Clan ...
, who punctuates Brother J's raps with certain keywords and phrases. The group's lyrics heavily promote
Afrocentrism Afrocentrism is an approach to the study of world history that focuses on the history of people of recent African descent. It is in some respects a response to Eurocentric attitudes about African people and their historical contributions. It ...
, railing against racism and socioeconomic oppression of African-Americans, and feature references to African-American revolutionaries and Egyptian places and deities. Music journalist
Jon Pareles Jon Pareles (born October 25, 1953) is an American journalist who is the chief popular music critic in the arts section of ''The New York Times''.


Critical reception

In a contemporary review, ''
DownBeat'' wrote that X Clan "offer food for thought with a backbeat ... Their mission is to educate, using hip-hop as the medium. And it's funky, too".
Jon Pareles Jon Pareles (born October 25, 1953) is an American journalist who is the chief popular music critic in the arts section of ''The New York Times''.The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' called it "
incantations An incantation, a spell, a charm, an enchantment or a bewitchery, is a magical formula intended to trigger a magical effect on a person or objects. The formula can be spoken, sung or chanted. An incantation can also be performed during ceremo ...
for the converted ... rapped in the artificial-sounding tones of radio disk jockeys." In his review for ''
The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, th ...
'', Robert Christgau facetiously cited its "hallmarks" as "obscure
Egyptological Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , ''-logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious p ...
insults and flowing funk beats." He viewed it as a product of the rise in "message rap" at the time and stated, "prophets and demagogues of every description join the myriad of hip hop wannabees, enabling lugs like these avowedly non-'humanist' Brooklynites to make their subcultural dent." In 1998, the album was selected as one of ''The Source''s 100 Best Rap Albums. In a retrospective review,
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 databa ...
's Andy Kellman gave the album four-and-a-half out of five stars and cited it as one of the best hip hop albums of 1990. Kellman observed "an infectious vigor with the way each track is fired off" and stated, "X Clan relentlessly pushes its pro-black motives and beliefs, and though the points are vague at times, at no point does it ever grow tiring." John Book of ''RapReviews'' felt that, although the beats were "just revisions of the well worn and proven", the album was about "how Brother J and Professor X presented themselves over those beats, it had the feeling of a live show or even a rough demo."


Track listing


Personnel

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes. ;X Clan *
Brother J Brother J (born Jason Hunter) is an American hip hop artist and is a member of the American hip hop group X Clan, which used to include Professor X the Overseer, Paradise the Architect, and Sugar Shaft. In 2016, ''Design & Trend'' magazine name ...
– producer, rapper * Grand Architect Paradise – producer *
Professor X the Overseer Lumumba Carson (August 4, 1956 – March 17, 2006), known by his stage names Baba Professor X the Overseer, Professor X, or PXO was born the son of Brooklyn-based activist Sonny Carson. Carson was a founding member of the hip hop group X Clan ...
– producer, rapper * The Provider Sugar Shaft – producer ;Technical credits * George DuBose – photography * Hugh Aladdin Ffrench –
engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the limit ...
* Mitchell Hartman – artwork * Kevin A. McDonagh – design * Herb Powers – mastering


Charts


References


External links


"X-Clan's Sample-Based Music"
at
WhoSampled WhoSampled is a website and app database of information about sampled music or sample-based music, cover songs and remixes. History Nadav Poraz founded the site in London, England in 2008, as a way to track musical samples and cover songs. ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:To The East, Blackwards 4th & B'way Records albums 1990 debut albums X Clan albums Political music albums by American artists