Fatbeats
2005
S.o.n.o.g.r.a.m. (Explicit)
About This Album
Keeping tabs on the actions of Ypsilanti, MI-based MC One Be Lo hasn't been a snap. Known previously as OneManArmy, he was part of Binary Star, a group responsible for 1999's Waterworld. An excellent underground rap album, it was hard find outside the Detroit area, until it was overhauled, retitled as Masters of the Universe, and re-released with national distribution. Binary Star then split. The former Raland Scruggs, who took the name Nashid Sulaiman after converting to Islam, switched his stage name from OneManArmy to One Be Lo for a 2002 solo album that didn't do his skills justice. Three years later, he resurfaced with S.O.N.O.G.R.A.M., his first release to be issued with major-label backing. He has a three-album deal, but you're left to believe after one play-through of this disc that he's letting loose with all that he has, as if it's his last chance to be heard. The album is 79 minutes in length, yet there's an absence of padding. The second half of the album is as strong as the first. If S.O.N.O.G.R.A.M. does have a fault, it's that there's too much to digest. One Be Lo is a deep thinker; the details and complex wordplay within his rhymes often take several plays to fully comprehend and appreciate.
Track List (try tracks 3 and 9)

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