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.

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

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 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?

Incredible beats and vibes, just slightly underwhelming flows.

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.

WHOA what the heck was that?

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.

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

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

Some nice beats but underwhelming bars at times

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.

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.

Jeez, whose dick did Mike Ladd suck to get on this list? The terrible rapping over amateurish home recordings has very little to recommend it. Oh, and the appalling falsetto warbling at the end of Planet 10 is just flat out bad. The occasional guest appearance of a real rapper with flow, skills and charisma highlights the shortcomings of Mr Ladd. I am angry that this time-wasting compilation of half-arsed demos was included in the list. It does, however, feature prominently in my forthcoming book "A Million Albums You Can Happily Ignore For The Rest Of Your Life". (A note to Mr Ladd, on the off-chance you have googled himself and come across this review: your record is not hateful. But, if you search your heart of hearts, you know. You_know_ this is not one of 1001 albums that you should hear before you die. )

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.

I Feel Like $100 after hearing this.

I didn't expect to like this but I was really surprised. Will definitely check out some more of Mike Ladd's music. MF Doom / Madvillain influences throughout. SO WHY IS THERE NO MF DOOM IN THIS LIST?!?

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

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

Mike Ladd’s decision to release music under his full name caught my attention. It made me wonder: would albums by Shawn Corey Carter, Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones, or Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. have carried the same weight without their stage names? But I digress... As someone encountering Ladd for the first time through 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, I was intrigued by comparisons to Kool Keith, Deltron 3030, and MF Doom. However, the album didn’t live up to these lofty expectations. “5000 Miles West of the Future” opens with minimalist beats and jazz-inflected piano loops, creating an atmospheric yet not completely memorable introduction. The chaotic “Airwave Hysteria” follows with distorted beats and erratic samples, leading into the funk-heavy “Planet 10” and the upbeat “Take More Than 41.” While these tracks showcase Ladd’s vast vision, they feel more like scattered experiments than a cohesive statement, leaving me disengaged early on. The album begins to find its footing with “Bladerunners” and “No. 1 St.,” its most accessible hip-hop offerings. These tracks display Ladd’s sharp flow and surreal, seemingly non-sequitur lyrics, offering glimpses of why this album was well received upon its release. The highlight is “The Moon’s Contractor,” a sprawling, largely instrumental piece that shifts between ambient, jazzy passages and glitchy beats. It’s cinematic, hypnotic, and undeniably captivating—though it’s confusing that the album’s strongest moment is one where Ladd’s vocal presence is minimal. The final stretch sees Ladd finally hitting his stride. Tracks like “The Animist” and “Red Eye to Jupiter” balance dense futuristic beats with stream-of-consciousness delivery, evoking the political urgency and poetic resonance of Gil Scott-Heron’s The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. It is shame that they have been placed so late on the album as the album suffers from pacing issues. Welcome to the Afterfuture is cerebral, surreal, and politically charged, weaving themes of Afrofuturism and dystopia through a collage of experimental soundscapes. While its ambition should be lauded, its uneven execution and lack of cohesion make it a missed opportunity. Did/Do I own this release? No. Does this release belong on the list? Probably not. Would this release make my personal list? No. Will I be listening to it again? I may return to a couple of tracks, the album as a whole isbmore of an intellectual curiosity than an essential listen.

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

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

So glad to share this Album I "must hear before I die" with 20.000 other Spotify listeners. It really had a big impact on music and my life before I died.

Look mommy, I can make a hip hop album

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.

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.

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

appears to be a virtually unplayed album on YT Music, you're welcome Mike Ladd. Not expecting much here but enjoying the vibe. Some more aggressive songs I had to skip. Ultimately enjoyed listening to it. I'm sure I'll forget about it though and won't return. 2.6/5

Love the concept of the album, but like a lot of these concept rap albums the production seems a bit muddy the more you listen to it. I just wish the music was as good as the lyrical content.

Very atmospheric album, which might turn off some listeners, but I don't mind it - feels like something that helped influence Damon Albarn to create Gorillaz. Overall a strange but fairly captivating listening experience, that holds up *reasonably* well in the mid-2020s.

Pretty decent lo-fi hip hop. Kinda cool concept. 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

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?

01) 5000 Miles West of the Future - 6,5 02) Airwave Hysteria - 5,5 03) Planet 10 - 6,0 04) Takes More Than 41 - 6,0 05) Bladerunners - 5,0 06) No. 1 St. - 5,0 07) To the Moon's Contractor - 4,0 08) I Feel Like $100 - 5,5 09) The Animist - 5,0 10) Red Eye to Jupiter (Starship Nigga) - 4,0 11) Welcome to the Afterfuture - 4,5 12) Wipe Out on the Wave of Armageddon - 5,5 13) Feb. 4 '99 (For All Those Killed by Cops) - 4,0 TOTAL: 5,12 (51/100) Current ranking: 405/437

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.

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

No thank you

Once was more than enough for me

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

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

I had really low expectations and was blown away

Loved it! Funky Hip-hop!

Oh yeah! Where is my floating car that I was promised in 1999. I do love me some sci-fi hip hop. Faves: 5,000 Miles West of the Future, Planet 10

hip hop with tasteful instrumentals mixed in. a few heinous songs

Loved the Buckaroo Banzai track! And the rest was great as well.

REALLY REALLY LIKED. no sabía que Mike Ladd existía and also this album is very recent which surprised me pq todos los de esta lista son viejos AJAJAJ. the production is great and I've been very into hiphop lately so I will be coming back to this

some really important tracks and some really beautiful production

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.

I definitely pre-judged this because he's called Mike Ladd, but damn this is so cool! Exactly the kind of hip hop I like. It has a Company Flow feature FFS. Shocking 5*

Amazing. Glad I found this. Funky hip hop.

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!

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.

Riktigt nice! Kommer återgå till detta 100%

absolute fucking masterpiece

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

Idk what it is but this album have potential for it

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.

This album is DOPE!

beautiful

jj

baita som, não dava nada mas instrumentalzao show

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.

Surprisingly fantastic

I thought this album did a really good job at creating an atmosphere, it sounded just like the name of the album, I loved the sound of it and I feel like there was some sort of message or story behind. However, I do wish there was more rapping songs, even if it meant the album was longer.

Industrial futuristic hip hop that I had never heard of before - what a great encounter! Some of the lyrics border on being a bit too on the nose, but otherwise Welcome to the Afterfuture is actually thought-provoking and super interesting with all the industrial-inspired beats.

Clever industrial hip hop from the future. I had never heard of Mike Ladd, but that appears to be a mistake. It might be slightly too long, but there’s enough variety and interesting concepts to keep you engaged.

8/10 - the rapping is pretty good, but it’s the instrumentals/production that really steal the show here

Surprised by how much I enjoyed this

pretty intense record. lots of big sweeping statements that still feel relevant to today despite this record being 25 years old. very heavy. the production is dense and thick, and really cool. from my uneducated perspective on hip-hop, it seems like this album was a precursor to a lot of what's been happening in hip-hop the last handful of years. experimental music, heavy soul-baring lyrics.

At first I thought it was wack. But something about it reminded me of my favorite backpack rap stuff of close to the same time period, so I kept listening, and it did all click for the most part. I like that long stretches were just production — kinda wish more modern rappers would do that. I guess for me it’s just that Ladd’s delivery doesn’t quite match his writing and production and concept and stuff. It’s not a huge gap though. I’m definitely gonna explore more of his stuff. This is pretty niche stuff so I wouldn’t say it’s quite a must-listen, but I’m glad it’s on this list.

Had no idea about this guy. Really enjoyed

It’s an interesting listen. The standout track for me was: Feb.4 (For All Those Killed by The Cops)

Sploinky music that makes the soul feel whole. It’s weird, a little unsettling, and a pretty chill vibe.

What a weird and interesting album, one that, after listening to it, makes me wonder how it did land in this list. Personally, I really liked it. The strongest point of this album are the beats, and it is not as surprise, since EL-P is also credited as one of the producers of the album. So what they presented here, is a combination of some weird, groovy and futuristic beats, and, for the most part, it works really well, in my opinion, as a relaxing or chilling experience. The vocals are not bad, but I feel that they don't add that much. This album could be purely instrumental and it won't lose power. Overall, an interesting an album that didn't demand too much of my attention but kept my head moving to the beats.

Yeah, ok, this is relevant to my interests! Will definitely be revisiting, and checking out more of his discography - fingers crossed there's more sci-fi in the mix! It was Dr. Octagon's "Dr. Octagonecologyst" with its sci-fi stylings that first got me into hip-hop, so I'm definitely positively inclined towards this. Mike Ladd doesn't have Kool Keith's panache, but he also doesn't have Kool Keith's cringe, so it kinda balances out. I'd go 4.5 here - maybe 5 with more listens. Fave tracks - "Bladerunners" really made me sit up and pay attention. Guest MC Company Flow is absolutely biting Dr. Octagon's style here, but he's also making lots of explicit sci-fi references, which lights up my pleasure centers. "The Animist" and "Red Eye to Jupiter (Starship Nigga)" were both cool. And the impassioned "Feb. 4 '99 (For All Those Killed By The Cops)" was a great closer!

What a strange inclusion. The 1001 is all over the shop when it comes to Hip Hop. The number of great hip hop albums left off, and then stuff like this included. I don't think this is bad or anything, in fact its quite interesting conceptually with the apocalyptic space themes etc, but it just seems so obscure and as far as I can see not an underground critical darling. Its the 3445th best Hip Hop album on RYM for example. The track "To the Moon's Contractor" is great. Sprawling, progressive. This album grew on me a lot, second half was pretty great. Still a strange inclusion, but I'm not against it. Fave Tracks: No. 1 St., To the Moon's Contractor, Wipe Out on the Wave of Armageddon, Feb 4. 99 (For All Those Killed by Cops) 3.8/5

This took me by surprise — far more industrial and melodic than expected, and those two qualities rarely go together.

This was great. Obscure, sci fi hip hop.

I’ve never heard of Mike Ladd before, and I’m not terribly familiar with hip-hop from this era, so I’m not entirely sure of what to expect from this album. I enjoyed both Eminem albums on this list (which I know this album will *not* be), but I didn’t enjoy both Common albums I reviewed (I’m expecting this album to be more in line with those). Either way, I’m interested to see what Mike Ladd has to offer,. This album was a really pleasant surprise. The beats were incredible, and I loved just how thick and heavy they were. The thickness of the beats was in direct contrast with the sleek and stylish vision we often have of the future. Instead, the beats served the lyrics, which expressed disappointment with the state of the world in 2000, a year that often served the point on our timeline that humanity collectively envisioned as when the future would become the present. I really enjoyed how the themes of Afrofuturism were woven into themes consistent with science fiction in popular culture. It was a unique approach to hip-hop, and I think it worked really well. As much as I liked the beats and the lyrics, not every song was a winner. The album started off really strong, then the middle dragged a bit, but then the closing of the album was really strong. I wasn’t a huge fan of the rapping either, but it wasn’t enough to detract much from the experience of the album. Overall, this album was really good, and it makes me want to explore some similar artists (one reviewer mentioned that this is similar to MF Doom, who I’ve sadly never listened to before). In closing have two favorite lyrics from this album that I’d like to highlight. From “Bladerunners”: “Style gunners flip shit amazin', Till death call me Deckard, I've seen slave ships off the shores of Orion fire blazin'...” From “The Animist”: “Go toe to toe with Bob Dole in battle, I leave 'em dead if it's head to head, Use his brains as sandwich spread, Not a man-wich, that crack is too racist, So I guess it'd be a Klan-wich.”

Pretty fun album. I enjoyed it more than I expected. 3.5/5

- OK, so, what would happen if Hawkwind discovered sampling and turntablism?? We have the answer with this record. It's also the lost sibling of the likes of DJ Shadow, DJ Krush, Kool Keith's scifi raps while with the Ultramagnetic M.C.'s and it prefigures Delton 3030 by 10 yrs or more. Good stuff ... -

pleasantly surprised, this kicks a lot of ass

Hadn't heard before. Pretty cool alt hip hop.

I'll admit, I did a lot of research for this particular album, because I was not satisfied with the barebone Wikipedia articles for this release and the artist attached to it. I scoured the internet for as many lyrics and background information as I could find. Along the way, I came across an interview with Mike Ladd conducted by Nate Patrin for Red Bull Music Academy back in April 2015 called "Key Tracks: Mike Ladd’s Welcome to the Afterfuture", which I implore you to look up as it helped to get a lot of the context for this album straight from the source. Without further ado, Mike Ladd is an underground hip-hop emcee and producer out of Boston. He previously played bass for various punk bands and was exposed to a rich and diverse collection of genres ranging from hardcore punk, jazz, poetry, dancehall, dub, lo-fi, and 80s hip hop. Mike got his graduate degree in poetry while recording his debut album Easy Listening for Armaggedon, which was more spoken word. Outtakes from sessions for that first record made their way onto this next album Welcome to the Afterfuture, which he worked on at Ozone Studios in New York around the same time fellow underground hip-hop group Company Flow was working on their music. Getting into the album proper, Welcome to the Afterfuture is a sonic melting pot of various electronic beats, jazz, funk grooves, and ambiance that Mike allows to permeate and set the futuristic vibes. The ten-minute "To the Moon's Contractor" with the horns and glistening keys over hard-hitting beats, the Bollywood-esque sample into the electro-funk stomp of "Airwave Hysteria", the bubbling synths and record scratches on "I Feel Like $100", the guitar line over live percussion and rattle on "The Animist". There's a spacious quality throughout these tracks, giving the sense of being in orbit and watching what has become down below. Along the way, Mike utilizes a spoken-word flow to make observations on his environment, in a manner that's unorthodox yet demands the listener to pay attention. Of course, Mike goes off with fellow underground hip hop Company Flow on "Blade Runners", a sequel to "Blade Runner" off Easy Listening on Armaggedon, where all three make the most of their technological references in assessing the megalopolis lifestyle being promised. That takes us to the big concept around Welcome to the Afterfuture, in that this album is a response to Afrofuturism. The science fiction dreamed about can't keep up with where real life has gone into the new millennium. On the surface, that means we have yet to attain fancy technologies like the flying cars and Mars colonies promised on the opening track "5000 Miles West of the Future". But dig deeper and you realize that real-world problems such as racism and political turmoil are still rampant, and it takes effort to shape tomorrow in the way you want it to be. In particular, two tracks stand out the most from this record, "Takes More than 41" and "Feb. 4 '99 (For All Those Killed by Cops)", which reference the murder of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed Guinean student who was shot and killed by four New York City cops in plain street clothes, for a total of 41 rounds fired upon. It's a cautionary tale that certainly echoes years later concerning police brutality, and it's a matter of what lessons we can take from such a tragedy to shape our future. With a better understanding of what this album was trying to accomplish, the one problem I had with Welcome to the Afterfuture was the lack of cohesion. Throughout the runtime, it felt like too many ideas were being brewed together, where the spoken poetry rapping clashed with the more ambient electronic pieces. During my listens, I kept thinking back to other underground hip hop albums with futuristic theming such as Deltron 3030's self-titled debut or Aesop Rock's Integrated Tech Solutions, and how those albums were more direct in the narrative they wanted to accomplish in weaving in their social commentary. It's not that I didn't understand what Mike wanted to achieve in his post-futurist assessment on this album, and it does reach a strong conclusion towards the end, but it was at best scattershot in how we got there. All that said, this has been a worthwhile experience researching and coming to terms with an album that is challenging to listen to. It takes a certain someone with an open mind to become aware of what's going on in the world today and make the future their own, and that's the kind of sentiment I can take away from Mike Ladd.

Pure atmospheric vibes! Sometimes this project makes me realize how much I love music. What a ride.

Mike Ladd sounds like a really interesting guy - a poet, spoken word artist, and highly respected in the underground rap scene. I know he has worked with lots of other great artists, but the names I recognized were Saul Williams and El-P (who has a vocal feature on this album). His spoken poetry style lends itself to a unique flow, and combined with his production, makes for a really distinctive hip-hop album. This was a very meditative and mentally stimulating listen. There were a couple of moments that broke the trance, but nothing worth going on about. I listened to it for a second time today, but initially listened last week during the surge of L.A. wildfires. The album opens with these lines, which are great but also made me glitch out for a second: "Went back to the mountaintop the other day / Saw one hundred prophets there / Hid behind the rock and prayed / To all the quiet ones / It’s come and gone like California fires / All praises be to the survivors / All those who ride the heavy lows"

I struggle to understand the lukewarm reception! what other rap record sounds like this? a lot of this stuff veers away from hip hop and into instrumental electronic exploration, with the 10-minute "To the Moon's Contractor" standing as a foreboding, surreal centerpiece with an orchestral sensibility, both in the sounds at use as well as the general progression from front to back. a lot of the tracks in that vein hold my attention just as easily as the more straightforward rap songs like "Bladerunners" or "The Animist". Mike Ladd is right in line, stylistically and philosophically, with a ton of his contemporaries in the East Coast underground. he delivers his words with gusto, and seems to take delight in making you listen really hard to catch everything he says. unfortunately, there's not many places to find accurate or complete lyrics for these songs, although it's pretty easy to catch onto the references to futurism, science fiction and police brutality strewn throughout (the closing track, dedicated to "All Those Killed by Cops", speaks for itself). what sets Ladd apart here is some truly futuristic production to match the futurism of his words. this is hip hop that feels pretty ahead of the curve for being released in Y2K! think Deltron 3030 or Vaudeville Villain but even further left-field. again, Endtroducing comes to mind, and it's a much closer comparison here than it was for The Avalanches a few days ago. tracks like "Red Eye to Jupiter" and "I Feel Like $100" really illuminate Mike Ladd's affection for jazz, with the former being a true embrace of the avant-garde, complete with direct lyrical and sonic references to Sun Ra. there's a few cuts here, like the title track, that are led purely by singing rather than all-out rhyming, and it's a nice addition. I also appreciate the recurring presence of strings, which add a touch of warmth to this album's otherwise cold, austere presentation. it's no coincidence that billy woods tapped Ladd for a feature on Aethiopes. if not for Mike Ladd, I don't know if we get billy woods, or many of the artists who have been part of the recent wave of experimental rap that's been taking Online music geeks like me for a wild ride the past few years, in the form we know and love it them today. decent 8/10.

Hiphoppy, was not able to distinguish text well

This was really. It’s clearly drawing from all kinds of influences and there is a ton of experimentation.

Alright, I get why this album gets a lot of hate. I think you need to like alt rap to get into an album like this, but on its own merit, for the genre that it is, I think it's a really strong project. The rapping is above average from what you hear from a lot artists - great flow, great diction, not just talking about bitches and hoes. And the production value is something truly unique. This guy is a mix of MF Doom, Open Mike Eagle, Talib Kweli, and the Alchemist and yet he preceded them all. No hate if this kind of album isn't your thing but if you're into a really off the beaten path underground rap concept album this is a great piece.