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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.
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Alternative PressDel wisely keeps things simple on the audio front, lubricating many of his basic, old-school beats with the good old P-Funk bottom of his early years. [Mar 2008, p.147]
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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.
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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.
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His calm articulation and clean beats never waver--where once he copped to vices and joked about dirty asses, now his “naked funk” is all about a craft that won’t quit. That’s impressive. But it’s also limited.
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His Eleventh Hour streams seem to glorify a pre-evolved hip hop.
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Entertainment WeeklyFunky as ever, the homosapien manages to evolve again, this time by embracing sounds of the past. [28 Mar 2008, p.65]
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FilterThe result is not so much a breakthrough in ease of listening, but more a feeling that one of the greats is getting back in the ring to fight after tying one of his own arms behind his back. [Winter 2008, p.99]
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Dark, cathartic and hardcore, Del stays true to himself.
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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.
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on the whole, battle rap seems to be Del’s continuously preferred lyrical method. And though he does slice off a few zingers here and there across this album, nothing touches the 'Jaw Gymnastics' of his work on "No Need For Alarm" or "Both Sides Of The Brain."
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It is certainly a satisfying listen, worthy of a sensible level of recommendation.
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The beats are subtle, but solid, better suited to a small, late-night party than a major disturbance. [Mar 2008, p.104]
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Del sways wildly between hit and miss. And Eleventh Hour, for all its boisterous and awkward handling, fails with a resounding thud.
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This is brown-bag Del, uncomplex and uncut. Unfortunately, Del's self-produced beats sometimes blur the line between elegant simplicity and tedium.
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We get tiny tastes of levity, but scarcely the sort of wit we’re used to.
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Under The RadarHe remains in fine form, as if frozen in time since 1991. [Winter 2008, p.90]
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UrbVocally, 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]
User score distribution:
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Positive: 4 out of 5
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Mixed: 1 out of 5
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Negative: 0 out of 5
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OwenS.Apr 22, 2008
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PaulCApr 15, 2008
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SDKMar 18, 2008