3 Years, 5 Months And 2 Days In The Life Of...

This was ok.

The two singles are great. The rest of the album is dross.

2/5 not my cup of tea

Apart from a few exceptions, I really hate hip hop, because it usually is a cesspool of misogynistic wannabe "gangstas" without much talent. This album is a welcome step up; it really has a positive vibe. This being hip hop, I really can't listen to it for any extended amount of time, but tracks like Mr. Wendal and Tennessee were a pleasant surprise. In spite of the genre, I'm giving it 2/5.

Feel that you need a lot of background to understand the message for hiphop bands. Anyway, like the way that the lyrics are treated. Went to wikipedia and found this about the band Arrested Development is an American hip hop group that formed in Atlanta in 1988. It was founded by Speech and Headliner as a positive, Afrocentric alternative to the gangsta rap popular in the late 1980s. Baba Oje and frontman Speech met at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee when they were both students. Baba Oje was 57 years old at the time. About africanism 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 seeks to counter what it sees as mistakes and ideas perpetuated by the racist philosophical underpinnings of Western academic disciplines as they developed during and since Europe's Early Renaissance as justifying rationales for the enslavement of other peoples, in order to enable more accurate accounts of not only African but all people's contributions to world history. Afrocentricity deals primarily with self-determination and African agency and is a Pan-African point of view for the study of culture, philosophy, and history.

I should start declaring that Rap is not my kind of music. Having said that, the album does not like me. I just appreciate positively some rhythmic basses.

It's fine I guess. It just doesn't feel like an essential album to me. I like the live instrumentation and there's some solid messages to be found here but it ultimately just feels average at best. For fanatics of early 90's hip hop only.

I can see why this album and its singles were popular at the time of release but it sounds incredibly dated by today's standards. It's not that the overall message is bad per se, but the delivery from Speech and the 90s production don't do enough beyond the cliché. In fact, the deeper message is surprisingly hateful toward black people who don't agree with his message, so it becomes an odd listen. This is not something I would ever return to.

Dull other than Mr Wendal. Didn't pay much attention to the lyrics but go the impression they were going on about god a lot which put me off.

Look it's pretty good for a hiphop album, but man, i just do not enjoy hiphop

Just ok, but not really my type of thing. 2

Not as interesting as I'd hoped, not as much of a party album to make it fun.

Got bored, it all sounds much too similar all the way through. Well, at least as far through as I got.

I'm doing my best to care, but I just don't. I read a little about Arrested Development (which I knew nothing about) and it sounds like they tried to be a counterpoint to the gangsta rap happening at the same time. Fine. But some of those more "aggressive" rap/hip hop artists had something valuable to say. This reminds me of DC talk making a different record for every genre to try and steer teens away from the rap, grunge, etc. paths on sin. That is such a cynical move - to assume that people are listening to a specific type of music solely for the sonic touchstones or "image" of the artist. In this case, making "rap" more palatable to the suburban Karen/Ken demographic, which produces these results...

I was excited to listen to this album because I remember really liking Tennessee and Mr. Wendell growing up. Turns out, my excitement was mostly for nostalgic reasons. I mean, the reggae/rap sound is fun. The motivational, Christian, political vibe is fine with me. But, the album didn't age well. Mr. Wendell is still a good song, and I'll give them a small bump because my over-excitedness is partially responsible for my disappointment.

Very similar to a electronic album: beats that don't amaze paired together with redundant lyrics. Obsolete album altogether

04/10/2022 Kinda annoying after a while... welp.

Monotone

It was OK, but it didn't do it. I thought the production was all over the place tbh

Ik houdt niet zo van rap, maar dit album heeft wel wat geinige melodie'tjes oftewel beats. Het is dan ook geen hardcore rap, maar wat meer commercieel in mijn ogen. **

not for me

Nada especial

Was a fun listen, but didn't really capture my attention.

Veritable Hits und recht zappelige Sozialkritik im recht papierdünnem Gewand 2.3

2.5

Before Outkast came onto the scene to popularize southern hip-hop, there was Arrested Development. They formed in 1988, with "Speech" MCing and "Headliner" on turntables, and did performances in hopes to get signed. This took a little over 3 years. 3 years, 5 months, and 2 days to be exact.... This album is worth passing. Even with it's southern hip hop roots and high energy, the album bored me. Most everything on here feels flat and uninteresting.

This album is all over the place. Some parts profound, some parts very Captain Planet, other parts just really awkward. Perhaps this is just what early 90s hiphop/rap was going to be. However, there's a major theme of empowerment and a very healthy dose of political discourse as heard in "Give A Man A Fish", an even-handed critique of the welfare system not including education that would reduce its own version of recidivism. Spiritual references, Christian, Humanist, New Age, while looking for common grounds, sort of dampens the credibility of those with its respective followers. However, this album simultaneously criticizes the empty rhetoric of Baptist churches (profound, as it is a foundational element for AD apparently) and the lackadaisical view of the Baptist church by the US government in "Fishin' 4 Religion". Again, the album seemed all over the place but it has an enjoyable pace, a bright demeanor and at times some difficult commentary that are in fact worth hearing, agreed or not. If artists have a platform to stir the pot, provoke discourse, Arrested Development may have done a fine job and for many listeners, could be what they are looking for.

Dear Mr Wendel, I still don't understand why this list keeps serving me hip hop, I can't stand the genre

Nice, reminds me of Avalanches. 3 Wtf is washed away Not a lot of content imo 2

Literally never heard of Arrested Development at all. Kind of cool mix of hip hop genres and makes for ok background listening but I can't see myself ever revisiting it.

Too 1992.

For a style of music I like, this was really not enjoyable.

Un altre (i van...) dels suposats grans clàssics del hip hop que va deixant anar el seu minutatge sense pena ni glòria. 'Mr. Wendal' és una gran cançó, poc dubte hi ha... però la resta hip hop amatxambrat amb jazz, funk, reggae... interessant, però definitivament no essencial

Not bad

Det ska erkännas att detta var en konstig lyssning och därav kanske inte en otroligt accurate review. Jag lyssnade igenom det här albumet i flera sittningar med relativt stora mellanrum och känner att jag inte har suget att dra en riktigt genomlyssning igen. Men den känsla jag trots det ändå har är att det var ganska nice. Vissa gånger jag tar mig in i genren hip-hop så kommer vi inte överens på någon punkt alls. Denna gång kunde vi ändå föra en diskussion, det var inte bara folk som pratade fort i mina öron medan jag inte brydde mig. Jag har absolut ingenting emot att dra igång Arrested Development men om jag känner mig själv så är det heller inget som kommer slås igång igen.

Ended up getting bored. Not the worst but won’t listen again

90-talshiphop. Ok

I remember these guys had a few hits when I was a kid, was pretty harmless rap/rnb. Ok yep still is. I've heard both better and worse, no strong feelings. It does go way too long though, and some of the lyrics are pretty cringey. 2/5.

Just not my thing.

First listen. 2/5.

Bouarf

Larga larga racha de hip-hop. Alguna vez hace mucho llegué a escuchar el nombre del grupo, incluso llegué a ver a su cantante (Speech) y me pareció alguien técnicamente bueno. Aparte de racha de hip-hop seguimos con esa corriente medio politicoide que trata de crear consciencia y alejarse de lo vacío del género. En este caso por un lado me parece que tengo que darle debido crédito; porque sea no no el primero en hablar de este tipo de temas, sin duda para 1991 no había casi nadie que lo hiciera y mucho menos nadie que llegara al alcance comercial que me parece tuvieron en su momento. El estilo musical no es malo; quizá no es mi máximo pero es bueno, la rima no es la cosa más compleja, los ritmos todavía medio arrastrados ochenteros pero sí con la introducción de cosas más africanas y me agrada que incluso de manera musical trata de tener una identidad. “Mr. Wendal”, “Man’s Final Frontier” y “Fishin’ 4 Religion” me parecen canciones bastante decentes. Mi problema es que aquí se llega a un nivel de sermoneo moralista gigante. Aquí si se sienten demasiado exageradas las ideas que quiere expresar, sí pensaba que se oía cursi partes de Like Water for Chocolate este se lo lleva de calle. No solo termina siendo sermón moralista épico sino que también siento que peca mucho en no poner atención o simplemente no pensar lo que se puso en el papel y termina incluso en casos sintiéndose hipócrita. No tiene sentido que en una canción digas “but he wouldn’t stop and I ain’t Ice Cube | but I had to take the brother out for being rude | and like I said before I was mad by then | It took three or four cops to pull me off of him” y al final de la misma canción salgas con que “The moral of the story is You better look very hard on who you step into | As you might get killed or shot and it’s not worth | Africans need to be loving each other and you know” O sea... no en todo caso tu moraleja de la historia era que aun cuando no queremos a veces la situación nos exige hacer cosas indeseables si quieres, pero ahora resulta que añades eso y te subes a un piso moral superior a todos nosotros a sermonear. Mientras tanto en el mismo disco donde la mitad hablas de amor y todos debemos ser superamigos tienes una canción que habla de una revolución con AK 47s y 9mm de pobres contra ricos... y tu punto de unión es... que se unen pobres blancos y negros a matar ricos? Para ser un grupo que supuestamente (y hasta el día de hoy) siempre ha intentado ser sobre el amor y respeto tiene letras hasta hipocritonas. Me dio mucha curiosidad escuchar el disco cuando vi que salió y aunque hubo cosas que disfruté el concepto moralista y la manera de implementarlo fueron demasiado para mí. Por un lado te satura con "ama a tu prójimo" a un nivel de ridiculez y por otro tiene versos que contradicen lo que acaba de poner. El mensaje termina entre cursi/vacío y borroso.

This is...weird. There's not a lot more I can say. It doesn't quite click with me.

nao gostei mt nao

Not really my cup of tea...

I enjoyed aspects of this album, it has very poignant meaning which also feels so relevant in today's world, but as an entire album I am not sure its for me. It reminded me of the Donald Glover stand up skit about old rap and buying a hat

La copertina prometteva bene e anche l'inizio però ho perso interesse quasi subito. Questo stile vocale non mi è mai piaciuto, l'arrangiamento e la forma dei brani sono troppo confusionari. Alcune buone idee ma non è un disco che riascolterò.

Faszinierend, aber sehr anstrengend!

🗣🗣🗣

Jazzy, Scratch Heavy Hip Hop. Organischer Sound, Sampler gut eingesetzt. Bestimmt wichtig für Hip Hop und POC Kultur. Nicht schlecht aber letztendlich nicht meine Musik.

eve of reality literally almost gave me a panic attack so that was hot. people everyday is my favorite track giving me eazy e SORRY. i’ve never heard anything like the album altogether but most of it felt too long tbh. i’m a fan of the anticapitalist vibes

Für HipHop gut hörbar

O Álbum parece ter uma temática interessante mas é ofuscado pelo gênero em que se encontra a meu ver. Continuo incapaz de apreciar rap, mas pela ideia vejo me obrigado a atribuir um 4 de 10. Nota:4/10

I gave it a listen…. Blah….

The lyrics and message are great, but I don't really love this style of 90s hip hop for some reason.

not my taste

bought this when it came out, loved it, and unfortunately it's aged really badly

I liked this well enough for the duration I listened to it - light, funky and lyrically quirky, but it lacks the snap and bite that I tend to enjoy in rap music. Nothing quite lodges in the mind for long enough to leave a lasting impact. Don't I sound grouchy? I've had a long day.

false

Doesn't quite hold up to it's legendary status, as I had hoped for. The jams still sound great, the message is still on point, but I wasn't as enthused as I thought I would be.

false

Not my thing

Not a big hip-hop fan, and the shouting bits are hard to listen to when I'm trying to work.

Enjoyable. Not something I would ever listen to

gospel rap? Not my scene.

They've got style apart from their music itself, but I'm not vibing with this album.

This one was okay. A few really cool 90s hip-hop/rap songs that were enjoyable, but generally not my favorite.

*a bunch of crappy rap.

Painful. Why is this on here?

six songs in...I'm not liking it much... okay, song 8 AND I CAN'T STAND IT ANYMORE

That was unenjoyable from start to finish. Felt like that era of hip hop that really just should stay in the point of history.

the beats are super video game crushed bits and the rap flow just reminds of will smith rapping. not for me, i need a chorus and some singing in my rap songs or my fried brain can’t stay interested long enough. just not for me.

This album is a very groovy, instrumental version of hip hop with clean lyrics. It feels very dated to me. The lyrics weren't that great either, they were overly positive. This sounded like it was straight out of an 80s or 90s sitcom. Not really my thing.

Not a genre I enjoy and not an album I enjoyed.

Turnt this on and promptly lost it to the minutia of everything else in my day. Totally forgettable, leaves no impression whatsoever.

Christian rap is not for me.

ovi repnige, osim što odlučuju, dakako, repniški repnigovati (klasika), također odlučuju biti neizmjerni krindžušari koji će sakatiti semplove s dobrano izgrebanih ploča (mrzim, ali jebeno MRZIM to odvratno, usrano pucketanje na pločama, pogotovo kad je namjerno izabrano kao "artistic choice" ili kojim god drugim pojmom odlučite krstiti tu uševnu grdusinu koja se uvukla u pojedine glazbene djelatnosti). bljuc kako se bližilo kraju, mislio sam, ajde, možda će moći proći pod dvojku... i onda je došla zadnja stvar, s najviše usranog PUCKETANJA i s nekom toliko iritantnom melodijom koja zvuči kao ona arapska zvonjava s nokije (https://youtu.be/oS2ZPeat-w4?si=g2H_wyqW-mJ6ZHHj). bravo! smeće. jebite se

People everyday me gustó,el resto una bazofia

Mom, can we get De La Soul. We have De la Soul at home. It's Arrested Development. White people loved this

Strange music.

Aunque tiene un par de tracks que me gustaron, en general me pareció odioso. Ya cuando llegó la canción aquella de “enséñale a un hombre a pescar” estaba llorando porque esto terminara.

Not good.

hip hop.

Being against abortion means being against the right for self-determination for women. Idk what shit in their heads made them think they're the good guys, basically blaming a young mother for getting a child the community has to care for because she is busy working her ass off. But thank god she did not abort WOW i'm gonna puke. Screwed up directly with the second song and I won't give these *you may chose an insult of your liking, but make sure it hurts* any more youtube views. I would give -5 if it was possible. this is the worst.

Not for me. 1/5

ich ha kei ziit gha zum gnaui notize mache aber ich finds insaaane preachy musikalisch nöd so spannend und afoch au nöd öpis woni viel cha demit afange. nöd so deep wies tönt.

No va

Hip Hop, 50eme album => 1/5 Moins désagréable que la plupart des albums de Hip Hop que j'ai subi (majoritairement chanté plutôt que rappé). Mais je n'ai pas quand même pas pu aller au bout.

Nope

Won’t be listening.

Nope

1. frontier - 1.5 2. ztage -1 3. people - 1 4. bluez -0 5. uuendal - 0 6. earth - 0 7. Raining -1 8. Religion - 1 9. Fish - 1 10.U - 1.5 11. Reality -0 12. Natural - 0 13. Dreads - 0 14. Tennessee - 1 15. Away -0

I dunno 90s hip hop seems a little too simple. Much prefer modern hip hop

Some song have good vibes and a nice beat. But there were far to many random sounds and strange instrument choices for me.

God this album stinks. Theres like two tracks that are a vibe (“U” and another one) but almost everything else is offensive. And this shit has the audacity to be an HOUR??? I feel like theres a much smaller more reasonable album waiting to be carved out. The combination of the ack ass ironic beats and silly singing mixes poorly with the semi experimentation YUCK ONE

Haven’t yet heard a hip hop album yet that I like; this being no exception.

Great 90s hip hop album. Sooooo 90s!!!

bleh

nah

Ich bleib dabei! Rap ist keine Musik!

No, not for me, none of it

Boring, repetitive. Preachy Beats aren't that good so it falls flat when they rap about "rhythm making the body move" "Dawn of the dreads" is awful. Album ran out of steam and overran its creative output long before it ran out of play time. Could not wait for it to be over.

I really wanted to like this but maybe because I was trying to get work done I just found it super abrasive. I was so relieved when it ended. I like the idea of more uplifting hip hop, but I wouldn’t listen to this one again.

Some boring ass Christian hip hop 3/10 Favourite: None Least Favourite: None

Ehhh. It's an album I guess. I liked Fishin' For Religion but the rest of the album kinda sucks. A real shame, I thought this would be pretty good.

Lame. Fucking hate hip hop

I don't like it.

look obviously im a little out of my depth here but while im all for idealism, it doesn't surprise me that the afrocentrism Moment in pop culture was as fleeting as it was if it was as much about erasing contemporary black culture as this album implies it was lol. speech loves pointing out that black culture is defined by oppression but his solution on here is a flimsy (and often highkey conservative) escapism that just kind of erases the full breadth of past and present white supremacy. identity-policing tracks like people everyday all but flat-out blame individual people for being victims of antiblackness because of how they present themselves to white culture, like be so fr man. i like some of the beats on here but man i truly cant abide speech lmao. his performative nonthreatening "positivity" vibe does not mix well with his famous condescension, and like its not even like he's wrong sometimes but there is an utter lack of gravity that makes it seem like he doesnt even understand the seriousness of the things he's high and mighty about, again because he mostly seems to conceive of everything as an individual choice. at least this isnt the album w/ the abortion song lmao

Uansett hvor mye rap jeg hører på så forblir det akkurat like repetitivt, umelodisk, kjedelig og pretensiøst som alltid.

These beats are very, very boring

Non fa per me

point8.

This album sounds like a teacher trying to teach his 7th grade students about politics through the magic of hip hop.

From that era when folks were still deciding where they wanted hip hop to go, and there was still a strong predilection towards positivity, especially from those who were put off by the anger and violence which quickly thereafter became hip hop’s mainstream. Not all of the positivity hip hop is terrible, but this one sure is. Corny, preachy lyrics, irritating vocals, faux-reggae world beat nonsense…yep, this one’s got it all.

Another meh album- I lose Interest half way in

This is only very loosely related to hip-hop, more pop music really. It was incredibly dull apart from the big hits, which were just quite dull. I never liked Arrested Development back in the 90s, when they were in the charts. This album was simply confirming the fact that I wasn't missing out on anything. I hated the lyrics and particularly the constant preaching enough to give this 1 star.

Not for me.

'People Everyday' sounds like a later a commercial jingle adapted from it. Alt hip hop.. eh, can't get into it.

Non particolarmente bello, genere che non mi fa impazzire

Nope

At the end of each day I look forward to seeing what my new album is going to be and I'm always disappointed when crap like this comes up. No matter how many hip hop albums this project tries to throw at me I'm 99% sure I'm not going to enjoy it and I'm not going to want to listen to it. This wasn't an exception. I guess there's always tomorrow...........

not into hip hop

Hip Hop not for me...

Not for me

Obviamente que as escolhas de hip-hop apresentam alta qualidade, só que eu simplesmente não tenho aptidão para escutar discos inteiros.

I thought a lot of this album was mediocre to not great. And then the 6.5 minute final song hit and it was so awful it decreased my 2 or 3 star rating right to a 1.

No…

p680. 1992. 1.5 stars. Better than the average foul-mouthed (c)rap/hip-hop of the time. Well done of its kind but still not my thing at all.

Not for me

30/100

Idk, I did not like it

meh

I've never "got" Hip-Hop. Boring!

no

no too boring

Nooooo, is this hip hop... A low zero!

Bilemiyorum, hip-hop asla dinleyeceğim bir şey değil (hatta müzikte direkt amerikan kültür unsurlarından nefret ediyorum; şu anki ana akım müzikleri de dahil, ew! ) ve bu yüzden ön yargılı bir biçimde yaklaşıyorum baya. Bir şans vereyim onu da veremedim. Sevenine güzel olabilir but def not my music of choice. ZORLASAN (2.5/10), tek yıldızla da kalır.

not good

Stari rep. Ne.

I don't know about arrested, but I could get behind "cease and desist". The best part of this album was imagining somebody being able to record this with a straight face. This should be on the list "1001 Albums That You'd Rather Die Than Listen To Again". Zero stars. That's all I've got energy for today, folks.

Ellers takk

Hip hop just isn’t my thing. Of Hip Hop, though, this isn’t a terrible introduction, compared to today’s Hip Hop.

Jag tycker synd om människor som inte har någon musiksmak. Musik för dem som tappades som barn.

老嘻哈，，我觉得除了在洛圣都之外不会听这种歌曲

El Hip Hop y el Rap no son mis géneros preferidos.

Not really my thing. Saying their name before each track wore on me. Flows were often lengthy and breathy. Fishin 4 Religion & U were the best tracks.

Not for me

Condescending rubbish

Whew. I've got a lot of complaints about this. I'd say most songs on this record last at least one, sometimes two, minutes too long. Most of the time, it's a verse, repetitive chorus, then vibing to the beat for an additional minute. The DJ can be a little overbearing, sometimes scratching til that's all that's left of the beat. I appreciate the sentiments in some of the songs, but most of the time they're presented in some pretentious, preachy tones. Also, where a group like Tribe can have beats that sound like they're from a certain time but still be fresh, these beats sound dated and are, again, sometimes ruined by an over-ambitious scratch session. I found two tracks I enjoyed, but if I'm being honest, I would've turn the record off much earlier before I found em. Best left to the past. Favorite tracks: "Dawn of the Dreads", "Tennesse"

I started to give a higher score, but I realized that I was grading it on a curve. The attempt to provide a counterpoint to gangsta rap is noble, but the execution is terrible. This album was dated when it came out, and it's way too on the nose. It couldn't be more on the nose if it was a pimple. That's some terrible wordplay, which is appropriate given the subject. Best track: Mr. Wendal

No es mi tipo de musica de costumbre pero debo decir que es un disco escuchable

Begin jaren 90 hip hop van een band die probeerde hip hop vrolijker te maken. Als gevolg een album vol met titelnummers van Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

Que los escuche su padre

Not for me. Knew after I'd pressed play that I'd made a huge mistake.

Rubbish.

not my style of music but they sound talented

This is a long album of group rapping that isn't particularly good. 3/10.

1*

"In November 2003, the group sued the Fox network over the name of the TV show Arrested Development."

Bad nope

Not for me