Hezekiah’s latest full length release, Conscious Porn is in stores now. Here Hezekiah is talking about creating the album, the meaning behind the album concept, and his particular dilemma between being ‘too hood for the soul/backpacker crowd and too backpacker for the hood cats.” The video EPK also features exclusive footage of various studio sessions, as well as upcoming music videos for the album.

Brand new video from Hezekiah in support of his upcoming album Conscious Porn, dropping October 12th via Soul Spazm Records. The video for “Here’s To The World” features Aaron Livingston, and is a nice compliment to the entire album theme.

First entry from Heze’s upcoming Conscious Porn LP (nice title), which will also feature Mos Def, Pharoahe Monch, Talib Kweli, Bahamadia, Raheem Devaughn, Cody Chestnutt, Bilal, Phonte, and more, with production by Steve McKie (Estelle, Jill Scott) and Street Orchestra (Baby Blak, Eshon Burgundy). The album is due this August on SoulSpazm Records.

LISTEN: Hezekiah – “Fired Up” (feat. Talib Kweli & Bahamadia)

    Much of Hezekiah’s influences are prevalent throughout the album. From the simplistic crooning on “Children Don’t Play” that resembles a Mos Def moment to the 9th Wonder-ish vibes of “Put Your Toys Away”, Hezekiah draws his energy from very positive forces. Throughout the album Hezekiah addresses various topics. He laments his issues with the crazy portion of the opposite sex on “Psycho Chick”, which sounds very Slum Village like, and will turn around it flip into a battle rhyme as heard on “It Couldn’t Be Done”.

    But at times the album can’t match its higher points (“Put Your Toys Away” and “Children Don’t Play”) but instead will throw the listener a few curveballs like the pretty tasteless “Photograph”. At first the superb vibes call upon a sultry ladies moment but it gets soured by lines like “Put em on the glass/Let me take a photograph” and “fat chick like to have sex for food/she half nude exposing her fallopian tubes.” Moments like this are pretty hard to digest. Much of the rest of the album is filled with mediocre instances where you can feel the potential growing but it never truly reaches its full height.  

    Needless to say, Hezekiah is a truly talented artist who gets his feet wet with Hurry Up & Wait. But songs that showcase how good this album could have been (like the Bahamadia assisted “Gypsy Slang”) get lost in the mediocre shuffle. But aside from these missteps, Hezekiah does deliver an album that deserves to be heard on potential alone.