Sometimes when you sleep, you sleep hard. Such was the case on the recently released project from Simba and Milton Gulli on BBE Records called The Heroes: Tribute to A Tribe Called Quest that had I not been hipped to by a friend, I might have found out about it months late, antagonized as much by my lack of awareness as by its overall dopeness. Dope is exactly the word that comes to mind when hear this collection of songs that are not covers of ATCQ's songs, but rather a point of inspiration for fresh takes on some golden-era hip hop classics.
And this project couldn't from an unlikelier pair; Simba & Milton Gulli are rappers from Africa's most musically under-represented country (intnl production-wise) and one of South Africa's Northern neighbors, Moçambique. I got a good grip on African music, but I got very little music from Moçambique. In fact, I've just doubled it. Rather good production marks this BBE production and the mic skills of this pair works very well over tribe-inspired beats and lyrics. Simba and Milton alternate Portuguese and English with ease on the albums eleven cuts. often with a single song, as was the case with the tune I played at 1pm...check the "Scenario."
