Latyrx The Album: 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition

2-LP gatefold on swirled red/white and blue/white vinyl,
with two bonus songs and an exclusive Black Friday RSD 7inch of “Lady Don’t Tek No” (produced by DJ Shadow)
20 years after its initial release, the Bay Area uber-classic Latyrx: The Album – lyricists Lyrics Born and Lateef The Truthspeaker, with production from DJ
Shadow, Chief Xcel and Lyrics Born – still stands as a seminal recording. It has gone on to resonate with successive generations of listeners, and influence countless artists. Recorded over a two-year period, it was the first full-length
release from the legendary Solesides collective, and encapsulates a highly
creative and influential time in hip-hop, frequently dubbed The Golden Age.
Over the course of the original release’s 42 minutes, not only can you hear
Lyrics Born and Lateef literally growing into themselves as artists, but you can
also hear the germination of the Solesides sound, first given birth at
California’s UC Davis in the early ‘90s, driven by brothers-in- beats-andrhymes
Blackalicious and DJ Shadow.
Partially by design, and partially out of necessity, Latyrx—and the Solesides
crew as a whole—became trailblazers. Lyrics Born remembers (in this set’s
lengthy liner notes), “We really wanted to explore. New styles, new subject
matter, new textures, new vocabulary. It came down to even wanting to do
words in the English language that you had never heard in a rap song before.
It was all about pushing.”
And push they did, with game-changing lyrical exercises like “Say That,”
“Balcony Beach,” “The Wreckoning” and “The Muzappers Mix.” Beyond cuts
that back-in- the-day fans know from the original sequence, the two bonus
tracks included in this edition are: “Looking Over A City” [produced by El-P],
originally released on the Quannum compilation Spectrum. And “The Last
Trumpet,” which closes this new deluxe edition. Originally appearing on the
2003 Lyrics Born solo album Later That Day, it’s one of Latyrx’s most-realized
collaborations, and one of their most overtly-politically-themed songs.
This deluxe, 2-LP issue of Latyrx: The Album is a must for longtime fans and newly-initiated listeners alike, with in-depth liner notes by veteran Bay
Area journalist Eric Arnold (including input from Lyrics Born and Lateef The Truthspeaker) and packaged in a gatefold format. And for Black Friday
Record Store Day only, 1,000 lucky buyers will have the addition of a first-time-ever 7-Inch of the group’s 1997 single “Lady Don’t Tek No,”
produced by DJ Shadow.