It's impossible to review this CD and not talk about the people who guest on it (well, you could, but you'd be rubbish). The core of this project are still producers Dan The Automator (Gorillaz, Lovage) and Prince Paul (De La Soul, Gravediggaz), but the sheer volume of appearances, many of which by artists one would not expect to see on a hip-hop record, swamps the few, by comparison, that helped out on the first HBMS release. Seeing Del The Funky Homosapien, De La Soul, Rahzel, EL-P, and RZA is no surprise, but it's safe to say Mike Patton, Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos, Cat Power, Jack Johnson, Jaime Callum, John Oates, and The Mars Volta don't often show up to the same party. Nor Tim Meadows who provides additional comic relief as the Ladies' Man next to the return of fellow SNL alumnus Father Guido Sarducci for several mood lightening interludes. The air of HBMS is supposed to be somewhat silly, after all, taking its name from a short-lived Chris Elliott television series, but that doesn't mean they shirk their social responsibilities either. Del's "The World's Gone Mad" is a quality questioning of the state of this planet, while Pharrell Williams' assisted "Class Struggle" is a biting criticism of "free" society's social order... and is the most worthwhile opinion Williams has ever expressed on record. But it's obvious after a few listens that the weight of the talent collected here hurts White People as often as it helps, which is best exemplified by the album centerpiece "Rock & Roll (Could Never Hip Hop Like This) Part 2." The first half of the track is dedicated to the pioneering of hip-hop and its amalgamatory invention through countless other styles of music with an intro from innovators Grand Wizard Theodore and Jazzy Jay. The atmosphere of the track is thanks to a carefully spliced medley of classical music which builds until minute 3:30 when the boys of Linkin Park take over and malaise the whole thing with their same old bog standard emo-pop rap-rock coastings and posturing. It's a sad continuation from "Part 1," which was the strongest track on 1999's So...How's Your Girl but oh, so telling of what went wrong here. Just too many fingers in the pie and I know where most of those fingers have been.
1. Intro
2. If It Wasn't For You
3. Are You Down With It
4. The World's Gone Mad
5. Dating Game
6. Breakdown
7. It's Like That
8. I've Been Thinkin'
9. Rock and Roll (Could Never Hip Hop Like This) Part 2
10. The Hours
11. Class System
12. First...and Then
13. A Day In The Life
14. Greatest Mistake
15. Outro