Welcome to the Afterfuture

Interesting. I like where it’s going but don’t know if it got where it wants to be.

They need a 0 option.

Mike Ladd, more like Mike Badd

Robert a encore fait son pitre en selectionnant un album que je mets au defi quiconque de connaître, passons, l'heure est à un sujet bien plus important. Cela fait maintenant plusieurs mois que mon camarade robpecunière et moi cravachons pour vous divertir, grâce à des reviews d'albums toutes plus pertinentes les unes que les autres. Nous nous demandions aujourd'hui si un français avait déjà lu ne serait-ce qu'une seule de nos reviews. Si tel est le cas, nous vous donnon srendez-vous: à l'heure ou l'album Qui sème le vent recolte le tempo de MC Solaar tombera sur votre générateur, inscrivez la phrase suivante dans votre review de l'album: "Mike Ladd est le fils de Robert Dimery". Grâce à ce savant codage, nous saurons que nos reviews ont peut-être un jour touché une âme. J'emmenerai personellement des madeleines et une bouteille de jus d'orange à cette occasion.

A Surprise! Excellent album which I had never heard of from an artist I had similarly never heard of before. This is the kind of album that makes this whole list and this website a lot of fun. This guy has a *very* Madvillain/MF Doom vibe. If you like them, you'll like Mike. I was going to go with four stars, but I really think I've talked myself up to 5. This was truly excellent.

Based on almost nothing other than the name, I wasn't expecting to like this but I liked it a lot. It's somehow at once lofi and sophisticated, laid back and sharp edged.

Que dire de Mike Ladd... Et bien pas grand chose puisque personne ne le connaît. Je vais donc profiter de cette critique pour vous faire part de quelque chose. Vous savez bien que mon compère eltrapeze et moi sommes très dévoués à l'exercice qu'impose ce générateur, à savoir l'écriture de "reviews" toutes plus inspirées les unes que les autres. Nous sommes, de ce fait, absolument persuadés qu'il existe parmi vous des admirateurs inconditionnels de nos écrits. C'est pourquoi nous vous offrons la possibilité de nous contacter. Pour ce faire, rien de plus simple : écrivez sous l'album Qui sème le vent récolte le tempo de ce cher MC Solaar la phrase "Mike Ladd est le fils de Robert Dimery." Vous serez ensuite informés de la suite des événements par un faisceau d'indices et différents messages codés à déchiffrer dans nos critiques ultérieures. Bien à vous.

I probably could die without having had listened to this. I can appreciate the experimental hip hop sound, but it's kind of all over the place

this was surprisingly good. i especially liked the last track (Feb 4 '99), which was an interesting and powerful departure from the rest of the album, but still totally fit.

Incredible beats and vibes, just slightly underwhelming flows.

WHOA what the heck was that?

Unexpectedly good. This was a great find - very electronicish, Deltron3030-esque, perfect future-forward sound. if I could give 4.5 stars I would.

I hadn't heard of Mike Ladd before receiving this album, and I guess I was slightly daunted by reviewing another hip-hop album after my severely negative reaction to Fear of a Black Planet earlier this week. Of course, hip-hop is a diverse genre, and it's immoral to judge someone for the iniquities of another. So, I postponed reviewing this for a few days in order to try and approach it open-mindedly. And I liked it, but I didn't love it. Mind, I get a few hints that this is a album not really seeking to be loved. From what I have gathered, Mike Ladd is a whale of an MC in the underground hip-hop brigade who happens to have been a lecturer on poetry at NYU. And I can't deny that this album is a dense, intricately constructed work. The album explicitly draws influence from Afrofuturism and, more broadly, science fiction. 1984, Blade Runner and the works of William Gibson all get allusions, and the bonkers Saturnian jazz leader Sun Ra casts an immense shadow over this album. As such, one can admire the grand scope and craft of Welcome to the Afterfuture, but one can also recognise that such a enterprise will leave some cold: some people just despise sci-fi as tedious piffle. Me, I can enjoy the occasional knee-trembler with, say, a Kubrick film or a JG Ballard novel, but I have no yearning to tackle any form of Dune. This album will appeal to some as much as it will appal others, and others like me will just consider it alright. I should point out as well that the album is rather low-key in its tone. This album isn't hook driven, nor especially virtuousic lyrically. The craft can't really be faulted, but it doesn't elate. I believe this is purposeful; the themes invite contemplation, not joy. This is an album best enjoyed alone, gone midnight. It's an album to admire, not adore. But the by, on the song The Animist, he talks about what his name would be if he were Jewish (Jared), Muslim (Ibrahim) and Catholic (Chris). The name Mike, which I assume is short for Michael, comes from the Old Testament, meaning it's a Jewish and latterly Christian name (and Michael is an archangel in Islam, though I don't know if Michael is a common name in Islamic cultures). Did he forget his own name?

Some nice beats but underwhelming bars at times

Now and again something a bit different comes along and this is one of those occurrences. I loved the industrial dark sounds mixed in with moments of beauty: a great combination. A cracking album by my reckoning.

Wow! Heavy jazz influenced hip hop album. Unexpected for sure, but a welcome surprise.

Mike Ladd's WELCOME TO THE AFTERFUTURE is a pretty wild trip that I really enjoyed taking. He won me over on the opening track, "I’m 5000 miles west of my future, Where’s my floating car, my utopia? My Mars colonies, like it’s supposed to be? Space 1999." I can relate. I'm not predisposed to relate to rap albums, but I fell in love with the science fiction vibe and all the ethereal music and atmosphere. There are a lot of compelling lyrics. This is one of the more unique and one of the best rap albums I've ever listened to. Some of my favorites: "5,000 Miles West of the Future", "Planet 10," "To The Moon's Contractor," "The Animist," "Wipe Out on the Wave of Armageddon"

I enjoyed this way more than I thought I would. Pretty good.

This one slid through my brain and I don't remember it at all.

What the hell's this? Zero chance this survived the edit. Haha, nope. Well Spotify said 2015 so I looked at the wrong year... Anyway you can tell it's 2000, and you can tell it's by a producer. All pretty unremarkable 24 years on. Bladerunners wants to be Gil Scott Heron and isn't. I most enjoyed the long track To the Moon Contractor, and realised this was because the not very good rapping was absent. The last track is a really great sound piece of itself. But after an hour I'm just tired. Huge vibes of when you'd pick up a mystery bundle of 5 cds for a quid in that bin in Vinyl Exchange in the hope of uncovering a hidden gem but instead it would all just be stuff like this.

Meh. Maybe influential on music outside of my taste. At least it was somewhat listenable

I wish I had more time to rip into this one. One of the contributors obviously liked boring experimental hip hop with no redeeming qualities. I have to imagine some kind of traumatic brain injury is required to enjoy this.

What the hell is this supposed to be????? If I'm reincarnated a thousand times and never hear this album again, then I will be happy. This has no place in 1001 albums to hear.

I liked this album a lot more than I thought I would. Conscious and/or abstract hip-hop is always welcome. The groovy double bass throughout the album was very nice and the keyboard sounds were sometimes even reminiscent of Radiohead. The flow of Mike Ladd is varied and perfect. The only flaw of the album is that it was too long.

Evokes images of a gang of future-cyber-punks huddled around a flaming trash can blasting this out of a boombox during the post-apocalypse. A really interesting hip hop album comprising a decaying industrial soundscape. The reflective final track 'Feb. 4 '99' is completely different, but somehow fits perfectly. Form matches function perfectly in this very cool and deliberately artistic endevour. Rating: 4.5/5 Playlist track: Feb. 4 '99 Date listened: 02/06/23

pretty good hip hop/electronic trend - but a bit crass.

Shocked to see an album with so few listens show up in this list (per Spotify at least) but it was actually quite good. A strong flow with some strong highs, few real lows.

Not into most of the rap parts of the album but there was a lot of creativity and I enjoyed the wordless sections best.

i think i liked it?

Cover Impressions: seems pretty aggressive. Could be rock or hip hop. Why Japanese? Hip hop it is. I maybe misheard some lyrics, but many sounded pretty unusual for references in this genre almost falling into nerdcore? That would also help explain the Japanese stuff too. Finding official lyrics was harder than I expected, and didn't have time to dig to confirm what my ears heard the first listen, but as I struggled to figure out the demographic for some of these I started to think it may be me.... There were still some aggressive songs too that weren't very relatable, but the less lyrical songs like the Moon and Jupiter had some good beats. For an album outside my realm it was pretty good. Favorite track "to the moons contractor" 3/5

who would have thunk that critics would inordinately love a guy who looks like he should have been a critic instead of making boring hip-hop

What the fuck was that 2 ⭐️

This album was frankly just too late, as there is some part of me that wants to respect the abstract choices made with this album; the ambient tracks, the spoken word that feels more like poetry than anything hip hop related, and the lyrical concepts are generally something that would fit well on some sort of concept album. However, most of the album I was only thinking that these concepts and styles had been done before relatively recently upon this album's release, and it makes Mike Ladd unfortunately look like a copycat at best, a complete poser at worst. This isn't really fair to Ladd, but it doesn't mean this album magically becomes timely or really all that well-thought-out. A major issue this album possesses is that it often feels like it can't balance the ambient instrumentals with the rapping parts. Many of the instrumental tracks would make great backing beats, meanwhile most of the actual main beats come off as weak and uninspired. Ladd is also not a great MC flow wise, as even though it undoubtably has to do with the spoken word and poetry influences, it still comes off as choppy, and lyrically it also is reminiscent of a stereotypical slam poetry show; talking. Like. This. To. Make it. Sound... like you're smart. It can just be incredibly goofy. The album does improve upon its growth, with some of the final tracks easily outshining the rest of the album, but at over an hour long it is too little too late. Had this released in the mid 90s, I may be singing a different tune, but by 2000 you had acts like MF DOOM, and while again it isn't Mike Ladd's fault that this has aged like milk, it can be hard to return to, I imagine, five years later, let alone nearly twenty-five.

This is an album that you don’t need to listen to

No thank you

Look mommy, I can make a hip hop album

It sounds like an episode of a cartoon that shows you how monotone the future will be and it plays you a song with an instrumental that has no sense. Didn't like it

Once was more than enough for me

absolute fucking masterpiece

I had no idea who this was or what this was about. But i reallly enjoyed. Thoughtful quality rapping crazy noise up down in yiur face and moments of abandon and delicate beauty. Reminds me of Ninja tunes type stuff. Im in brother.

Idk what it is but this album have potential for it

This album is DOPE!

beautiful

jj

What a refreshing hip hop album. Really loved this one. Three full listens and it impressed me each time. This is why I'm on the 1001 train

Very interesting in concept. I loved the messages and lyricism. They shine out through some somewhat muddy rhythms at times.

Amazing. Glad I found this. Funky hip hop.

baita som, não dava nada mas instrumentalzao show

I had never heard of the artist or album before this, but I REALLY enjoyed this album! It's got such a unique, dark, chill, futuristic vibe going on, and I had a great time listening through it! Definitely will be revisiting.

That was a surprise! I really enjoyed this. At first I thought „no not more hip hop“ but I listened to it twice. That means something!

Riktigt nice! Kommer återgå till detta 100%

Great atmosphere and nice raps. So sad it is so unknown nowadays!

I like the cyberpunk theme; the texts are smart, and the sound is suitably cool and futuristic. The style is a mix of genres: the proportion of rap varies by track, and the instrumental parts are somewhere between electronica and something almost resembling a jazz or prog jam. You can tell that Ladd doesn't just produce but can also play some instruments himself. The album has some slow moments, but at least they are chill.

love it. its like a slam poet made a Deltron 3030 prequel and went back in time and released it the month before Deltron came out. Also El-P on track 5.

I didn’t know what to expect going in, but I enjoyed this album quite a bit. This album seems to have predicted the rise of progressive rap that came to prominence about a decade after this album was released. It uses electronic textures wonderfully and seems to have a good grasp on what was going on in electronic music at the time. The beats are solid as well. This album is socially conscious and seems to be telling a story. Overall, this was a really interesting listen.

I'm surprised I've never heard of Mike Ladd before, but this album is right up my alley. Very Swayze!

I really liked the one about the moons contractor, very complex and lots of levels and that

Easy listening hip-hop.

I had no idea what to expect when clicking on this one. So far, I'm pleasantly surprised. Not sure what I would call this, it if I'd listen to it again, but it was enjoyable enough.

This is cool! I've never heard of Mike Ladd but really enjoyed listening to this album. It's like a hip hop spin on Zero 7 which can only be good news for me. It's got top qual rap and lyrics with some really cool sounds over the top and it put me in a good mood. A good new discovery! Lots of really interesting global influences throughout the album so it held my interest well throughout. Only thing bringing it down to a 4 star job is some songs had stressful noises like Red Eye to Jupiter.

I'm surprised with this album. I was expecting just some generic electronic samples and basic hip-hop, but I found a very deep album with some really good songs. It's impressive how these songs are recognizable in modern rap/hip-hop songs.

I saw that this was an early 2000s hip hop album that I'd never heard of, and I got a bit worried that it would be another shitty British rap album. I was wrong, and I was glad of that fact. This album fucking kicks ass. Some of the lyrical delivery is a bit out dated, but then again so is this album. The synths on it are really cool (often sounds similar to the Moog used on Virgin Suicides by Air), and the samples are great too. Not overwhelming, not overdone, a light touch. A really solid album that I'm surprised I haven't heard more about 4/5

Een combinatie van rap en rustige, maar soms speelse, elektronische muziek (Triphop-achtig). Beide lijken soms wat zelfstandig te functioneren. Toch is dat niet storend. Wat dat betreft doet het me wat denken aan Rudeboy. Maar dan wat rustiger.

Never heard of this guy before… but this was pretty cool. Experimental hip-hop

I think I need a second listen to this. Waves of loving it, and then moments of thinking it was a bit of a gimmick. Still liked it more than not.

Never heard of this guy before. Hip hop is not my usual genre and usually leaves me cold. However, I loved the overall sound of this record. He hit on something with the soundscape.

It’s very original. Feels fresh, even 20 years later. Lyrically fulfilling, rewarding beats, and solid production. I wish there had been some more exciting tracks on here to bring up the energy on the album. Not to say there’s no range, but that it didn’t quite stretch itself in a way it could have. Other than that, no complaints. 4/5

While I love a lot of old, old school rap (Grandmaster Flash, Run DMC, etc), I don't like modern hip-hop as much. But this is really good. So much so that, along with the previous album recommended to me, I've paused my recommendations so that I can give these two albums more time. - How did the 1001 project find this? At least on Spotify is has very few listens, and it's Wikipedia article is very sparse (implying it didn't make much of a splash). I'm glad they found it though. Very good. - Interesting looking at the reviews and ratings on here. Those who write anything seem to mostly a 4 or 5. But it's overall, it's only rated as 3 stars -- it appears to be the "fly by" voters throwing out 1s and pulling it down.

4.5

Not expected to be a good album as there are only a few songs that are good on their own, but it just works. Very Gorillaz-esque, but more powerful.

4.0

A decent listen, though I'm not really sure why this made it onto the list... 7/10

Delightful and compelling

This was a surprisingly interesting album. It started off as a solid, if slightly unremarkable, rap record. The second half, though, takes on quite a different tone. There's some jazz influence and more than a little Gil Scott-Heron rising to the surface. I'd say the first half is fine, and I'd have been happy giving it a 3/5, but the second half really elevates things. Definitely worth sticking with.

Grew on me. Flow is not to my taste, a bit awkward, but overall sound is nice.

Love all the blips and the esoteric subject matter. Gets a little annoying in places with repetition and strange affectations, but mostly a really interesting listen. Ladd's Gun Hill Road really improves on the formula, but this album is still worth spending time with.

If I was Jewish my name would be Jared If I was Muslim my name would be Ibrahim If I was Catholic, my name would be... CHRIS! Loved this, never heard of it before.

I liked it. Some cool moods and some thought provoking rhymes. 4 stars

For me it's a plus when I hear something new and I can't tell where or when it came from. Admittedly as I heard the first few minutes of this I buckled in for an hour of cold hard angry hip hop berating universal injustice. There was a rapid paradigm shift when I realized there was extensive riffing on Blade Runner and Buckaroo Banzai. Like wow, am I finally in a sector of a niche target demographic for something? I will need to circle back to listen closely for more nerd deep dives. "To the Moon's Contractor" is an extended cosmic trip that calls me back to the title screen theme for "Phantasy Star Online" on the Dreamcast. Avant-garde, liberated from all conventions, and ready to go to Planet 10.

A couple of really good songs. I love the late 90s early 2000s experimental music. Rating: 4.0

Chill beats, thoughtful lyricsism. Just how I like it.

Experimental hip hop and i loved it. More of this please

Nice surprise to see this hear. I bought this back in the day from a second hand CD shop as I was a big Company Flow fan, but it didn't do a great deal for me at the time. 20 years or so later it's much more resonant with me and still stands up remarkably well - a golden era for underground hiphop

A present from the past

This album really grew on me. Creative record with mf doom / mad villain vibes. Great for a mold

Wasn't a fan of his flow but I liked the subjects and the beats were amazing. Lots of different genres which made it a joy to listen to.

At first, I viewed this with trepidation (I generally don’t like rap), but it proved really good. The blend between rap and ambient worked surprisingly well.

This album and artist are new to me. I ran kinda warm and cool (not really hot and cold) with it. A chill laid back beat would start and I’d be grooving to the moment that I would realize that I had zoned out and then think, “oh geez, is this track still going?!?” The giddy moment when he put ‘cornucopia’ in a rhyme (I just love that) to the furrowed brow when I think “did he just say ‘pee pee on’ something?” Just back and forth... The last track landed me on the warm side, and so here we are.

Wow! How the fuck have I never listened to this, love the Company Flow feature, love the vibe. Gritty underground NYC hip hop at its peak.

One of the takeaways from this exercise is that no matter how good some of the tracks are, anything with a run time over 50mins has to work veeeeeery hard to make it worthwhile. In saying that, Bladrunners is big track and the atmospheric breaks in The Moons Contractor etc were excellent

Lot of great jams.

first song and to the moon's contractor is really interesting

Starship N*gger, outer Space Motherfucker. one of the few times i've really enjoyed the use of the N word in music. maybe one day when i'm in the middle of the woods with no one around i might sing along. though even writing that makes me feel nervous i'll get cancelled. album started really slowly, picked up and then was actually decent. piss poor name.

It definitely caught my attention when the first track made a "Space: 1999" reference. That was just the first of a lot of intriguing references. Did he just refer to "Mummenshanz"? The mix of painful contemporary realities and speculative fiction was fascinating to me, even if a lot of it is not something I want to go back to listening to for pleasure. "Red Eye to Jupiter," for example makes a "Trouble with Tribbles" reference, but I don't think I'll choose to play that one again. "To the Moon's Contractor" was...long? But there were also songs I really enjoyed, like "5,000 Miles West of the Future" and "Airwave Hysteria." Why couldn't I find more information about Mike Ladd? "Feb. 4 '99" definitely gave me a glimpse into a story I wanted to know better.

Interesting.

Cool Keith vibes. Fun existential lyrics playful instrumentations

really cool. kinda like MF Doom type spoken word rap but with modern beats

I liked “The Animist” especially and the rest of the record was interesting and it kept my attention.

Pretty good. A little long, but the core is solid. His other work might be interesting to check out.

Proper experimental stuff, really enjoyed a lot of these tracks, shame theyre not on spotify