Hezekiah comes out of the school of Soulspazm like fellow Rawkus re-launch recruit, Marco Polo (see Port Authority) and while a not a ‘new discovery’ as such, there’s more than enough hip hop fusion with soul, gospel, R&B and funk to give the album its individuality.

There are not many DJs that can get away with playing two classic ‘jazz funk’ tracks followed by Hezekiah’s ‘Bombs Over Here’ but our man Peterson is a bit special (see links below). Listening to that at 3am finally got me over the album title issue and all of a sudden, this album started to make sense to me (perhaps not surprisingly, the legendary Gill Scott [Heron] gets a name check on ‘Ghetto People’).

‘Bombs Over Here’ has a sort of free-rock guitar solo of bomber command/tracer bullets that gets a little manic. Not as free as Canadian Jim Black (of ZAUM) of course but he successfully repeats the trick on ‘Predict A Riot’ and ‘Moments In Sometime’ which respectively feature Keziah and Aaron Livingstone; the both of them returning as guest after being on of the guest on H’s debut album, Hurry Up & Wait (now that’s a good album title).

Because of the variety of the 18 tracks, it takes a few listens to get into this which is surprising as there’s some really great tracks on it, again, ‘Ghetto People’, the funky instrumental ‘Afro’ (shame it’s so short) and Kanye inspired ‘Single Now’.

In terms of big names and guaranteed radio play, you can’t get more regal than Bilal (‘Looking Up’), Jamal (‘Lets Get Involved’) and the ever-impressive Jaguar Wright doing her thing on ‘I See Yaw’.

Philadelphia seems to have an over representation of quality musicians but there’s room for one more bedroom producer to come out and join the ranks of the great and the good. Hezekiah will be opening for Mos Def on tour this year so it’s all looking up and I predict, if he is single now, it won’t be for for long as it’s time to get involved.

P.S. Need to catch up on some old Rawkus? Try Lyricist Lounge Vol. 1 [1998] feat. De La Soul, Mos Def, Q Tip, Sarah Jones, Kool Keith, Saul William, Talib Kweli and many more.

Hectic Mix nominations: ‘Bombs Over Here’, ‘Ghetto People’, ‘Looking Up’, ‘Afro’, ‘If One Falls’, ‘Single Now’, Lets Get Involved.

Reviewed: Hezehiah — I Predict A Riot (Rawkus) Release date: 17th September 2007
Tracklisting
1. Beginning ft. Muhsinah
2. Wild & Wreckless
3. If One Falls — Eleon
4. That Filling ft. Freeway
5. Looking Up ft. Bilal
6. Single Now
7. Let’s Get Involved feat Jamal,
8. Bombs Over Here
9. Definition of a Bitch [Lude]
10. I See Yaw ft. Jaguar Wright
11. I.P.A.R. [Lude]
12. Moments in Sometime ft. Aaron Livingston
13. I Presict a Riot with Keziah & E. Shon Burgundy
14. Freak [Lude]
15. Gotta Love It ft. Tarentz Moreese
16. Ghetto People ft. Richard Rae, Kamanchi & State Store
17. Afro [Lude]
18. Muhsinah Outro

Links:
ww.rawkus.com
Tour Dates: NEW YORK CITY — ALBUM RELEASE PARTY Friday 09/21/07 @ The Knitting Factory, 9 PM. 10 the Door or $15 which includes a copy of the new CD.
www.myspace.com/hezekiah3crateofporn
www.last.fm/music/Hezekiah
Soulspazm Records www.soulspazm.com
www.myspace.com/richardraw
Gilles Peterson :: Tracklisting 27 September 2007 :: New Discoveries
MFSB — ‘Mysteries Of The World’ (CBS)
Gil Scott Heron and Brian Jackson — ‘Johannesberg’ (Arista)
Hezekiah — ‘Bombs Over Here’ (Rawkus)
Bilal Salaam — ‘So What’ (Ultra Vybe)