Both Mr. Lif and Akrobatik have paid their dues for years in the forever slept on Boston underground scene, first coming up during the 90′s indy 12inch boom, then delivering a pair of solid debut full-lengths in the form of I Phantom and Balance, respectively. Along with DJ Fakts-One, the two have joined forces to form The Perceptionists, who deliver Black Dialogue on NYC’s popular Definitive Jux imprint. 

     Almost like a millennial answer to EPMD, Akrobatik and Mr. Lif trade mics over raw, hardcore production, like it was ’88 all over again. Touching on a wide range of topics throughout the album, Black Dialogue is the quintessential underground hip-hop record, as not only does it cover all the bases, but it never fails to entertain. The album opens up with an obnoxious headcracker in the form of “Let’s Move”, where Ak and Lif lay down their mission statement over a ridiculous beat produced by Fakts-One . This same type of bare bones mic ripping continues on “People For Prez” (check that classic Boston sound), and again on the El-P produced “Blo”, where the duo brings out the bounce, while a nicely timed KRS-One sample fills in the blanks. 

    But while the Perceps spit devastating battle rhymes during the beginning of the album, there’s no shortage of concepts throughout the rest of it. The duo’s strong political ideals come through on several tracks that question the government’s motivations, such as on “Memorial Day”, a scathing dis to the Bush administration that asks “Where are the weapons of mass destruction? / We’ve been searching for months and we ain’t found nothing / please Mr. President tell us something / We knew from the beginning that your ass was bluffing!” Again on “What Have We Got To Lose”, Lif and Ak aim at the White House over a hard hitting beat that meats at the crossroads of Run DMC’s “Sucka MC’s” and Public Enemy’s “Lost At Birth”. There’s room for more poignant bitching on the title track, “Black Dialogue”, where the question pop culture’s current fascination with Black culture, as Akrobatik spits: “Fast foward to 2000 and now / you see it everywhere you look – speech, music, fashion and style / It’s Black Dialogue / Go ahead kid, try it on / It’s much harder to master than precision with firearms / Corny n***as switch it up and rent it to Viacom / but it was taught to me early on, by my moms.” Have truer words been spoken on a rap record in ’05?

      But it’s not all abrasive battle raps, or political and media assassinations. At the end of the day, The Perceptionists are pretty down to earth, regular dudes. The other sides of the crew is shown on several of the albums other tracks, lending the perfect balance to this already solid release. The incredibly dope “Love Letters”, plays like an updated version of The Pharcyde’s “Passin’ Me By”, as the two pen letters to their secret crushes. The crew has fun on “Career Finders” (feat. Humpty Hump), as they sarcastically suggest more appropriate professions for today’s gimmicky rappers. Again on the Guru featured “Party Hard”, we find the crew at their most loosey-goosey moment, as Camu Tao propels this underground club cut into DJ’s sets at The Rub or The Get Back. The album ends on a somber note, with “Breathe In The Sun”, a reflective look back at their lives thus far, before moving on to greener pastures.

     All in all, while many crew albums or super-group projects usually don’t deliver, The Perceptionists’ Black Dialogue is an exception to that rule. In fact, it’s easy to say that this record is easily one of the most well-balanced collaborative releases since Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek’s Reflection Eternal release. Unlike that release, it doesn’t use one producer exclusively, however with such a wide variety of topics and song-styles, it avoids monotony and keeps the listener interested throughout. While this might not be the next Illmatic, like that seminal hip-hop classic, at 12 tracks in length, the fat is trimmed, leaving little room for error.