Description
SpeakLife is the solo debut album by the American hip-hop artist Sev Statik (a.k.a. Joseph Evans) of Deepspace5 and Tunnel Rats fame, released on Uprok Records in 2002, a hip-hop division of BEC Recordings. (He actually did release a previous studio album in 2001 entitled Altered State, under the moniker “Stu Dent”.) The album was produced by Dert, Dave Santos, DJ Cheapshot, and DJ Nate da Great.
Sev Statik had recently joined to the hip hop collective Tunnel Rats, and the release features several artists from that group. It also features Listener from Deepspace5, another collective of which Sev Statik is part. Speak Life marks the debut appearance of Propaganda, who would join Tunnel Rats the following year.
Writing and recording this album was a big experience for me – challenging to say the least, but it gave me the start in the music industry I seriously appreciate. I had a week to get this album done and with the heavy hitters around me like Jurni, Dax, Raphi, Macho…etc… It was intimidating haha! Biggups to my Tunnel Rat family as well as Uprok Records and Josh aka Plastic for the platform to bring you my first official Sev Statik record Speak Life. [A note by Sev Statik, featured on his Bandcamp website]
Sev supplies us with a cross section of sounds ranging from earthy, sample-based, rugged, east coast, clubbin’, abstract and weird all getting a look in somewhere in the mix. Sev has the ability to get to the heart of spiritual and social problems with sensitive and insightful observation. From the harrowing track, «Disappear», that charts an abused girl’s demise and her plea to God for help, through to the reality check slap in the face of «Now». However, all this said, the album fails to deliver a strong style, let alone anything vaguely groundbreaking. Musically the album needs greater depth and consistency. I hope Sev can pull it off next time. [T A Sutherland, Cross Rhythms, January 2003]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/speaklife/724029447)
CD tracklist:
01. Intro (Scratches by N8 The GR8)
02. All For A Purpose
03. Warning (feat. Dokument and Propaganda)
04. Over The Influence (Scratches by N8 The GR8)
05. Da Pointman
06. Meds
07. Disappear
08. Speak Life (feat. Dax Reynosa)
09. I Apologize (feat. Listener)
10. Poor Penmanship (Scratches by N8 The GR8)
11. Seasons Of A Tear (feat. Elsie Van Clief and Zane Valdez)
12. Statik Interlude
13. Right Now (feat. Macho and Raphi)
14. Rock Of Ages (feat. Raphi)
15. End Up (feat. Macho)
16. Invisible Bars
17. Close
18. Global (feat. LPG)
19. MIC
Note: Available at Bandcamp: https://sevstatik.bandcamp.com/album/speak-life
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