Eleventh Hour

The label's tendency toward bottom-heavy, fog-thick beats sounds awful nice under Del's syrupy brainiac flow, which goes back to his battle-rap basics here.

Dark, cathartic and hardcore, Del stays true to himself.

It is certainly a satisfying listen, worthy of a sensible level of recommendation.

Eleventh Hour, his largely self-produced fifth solo album--and first in eight years--lacks much of both the lyrical and instrumental verve of his best records.

His Eleventh Hour streams seem to glorify a pre-evolved hip hop.

He remains in fine form, as if frozen in time since 1991. [Winter 2008, p.90]

Vocally, Del may have lost some of his lyrical miracles and "spectacular vernacular" from albums past, but his unquestionably familar cadence hasn't budged a bit. [Jan/Feb 2008, p.104]

The beats are subtle, but solid, better suited to a small, late-night party than a major disturbance. [Mar 2008, p.104]

Eleventh Hour is certainly not a disappointment: Del's as good of a rapper as ever, and the way he fits his words into the beats, playing with his and their cadence, is truly spectacular, but he needs to challenge himself--and his listeners--more, lyrically and beat-wise, instead of relying on the same tried-and-true methods, if he really wants to continue his legacy.

Still, for an album that pushes the limits of how much you can say about so little, the stuff that's said rarely fails to be entertaining in the pure linguistically structural sense.