Review Summary: Here come some brothas I know for sure can rap!
The Tortoise and The Crow is a triple disc hip hop album created by The Grouch and Eligh, former members of the hip hop group Living Legends. The album includes one CD featuring The Grouch and Eligh, one with just The Grouch, and one with just Eligh. This album’s production is very smooth for a rap album. Preferring high soothing vocals and samples, this album sets a jazzy mood that is only setback by its hooks. The first disc of the CD (featuring both Eligh and The Grouch) is a major letdown compared to the last two discs. The hooks and songs on the first disc all have a feel of being made on the spot. The hooks are so basic (“Say Eligh! Say Grouch! X3) that they add nothing to the songs except length, while destroying the hardcore hip hop vibe the CD would otherwise have.
If there is one thing this album shows, it is that The Grouch and Eligh are better making music on their own than as a duo. Their style’s have grown too different since the days of being in Living Legends, and their makeshift attempt to make this style cohesive with wildly out of place hooks is just plain awful. Eligh’s third portion of the album is quite impressive and a great follow up to his last solo LP
Grey Crow . Starting out the first three tracks as purely instrumental, the album sets a serene mood that makes Eligh’s lyrics both mentally stimulating and relaxing. The bad hooks are almost nonexistent on this portion of the album, making this portion of the album the highlight of
Tortoise and the Crow . “My God Song” features stellar production and sampling to create a divine like atmosphere that doesn’t sound overdone. “A Different Way” features a God like verse from both Eligh and the featured guest rapper Ellay Khule. The Grouch's solo portion of the album is also excellent, here the beats slow down and mesh immeasurably better with his vocals than they did on the first disc where he was forced to try to keep up with Eligh's machine gun flow. The Grouch’s, and especially Eligh’s, style are not easily accessible and usually require multiple listens before the songs become catchy and enjoyable. Eligh’s flow is so rapid that it is hard to follow his rhyme patterns and lyrics until you are much more familiar with the songs.
The Tortoise and the Crow has certain tracks that offer more than anything you will hear out of modern day hip hop. The shame is that they carelessly made such a lengthy album for the hell of making one, because this album could have been condensed into a hip hop classic.
The Tortoise and the Crow is recommended to anyone familiar with The Grouch and/or Eligh, and people who don’t mind extensive amounts of instrumentals and singing in hip hop (who will likely love this album for it's unique blending of futuristic music, jazz and hip hop). If the idea of a triple disc hip hop album sounds upsetting, just skip the first disc altogether, that's what Eligh and The Grouch should have done themselves.
