Dilated Peoples:
Neighborhood Watch

Release Date: 5 April 2004

Reviewed By: Melisa Tang

1. Marathon

2. Neighborhood Watch

3. Tryin' To Breathe

4. Caffeine

5. Who's Who

6. Poisonous - Feat, Devin The Dude

7. Reach Us

8. Big Business

9. Love And War

10. 1580 (skit)

11. World On Wheels

12. Closed Session - feat, Defari, Phil Da Agony, Planet Asia

13. This Way - feat, Kanye West

14. DJ Babu In Deep Concentration

Talib Kweli - The Beautiful Struggle
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The Dilated Peoples are no strangers to hip hop, having built up their fan base with 2000’s debut ‘The Platform’ and 2001’s ‘Expansion Team’. For their third LP, ‘Neighborhood Watch’, they’ve taken their time to create the beats and rhymes, but will this do the album any good?

‘Neighborhood Watch’ kicks off with ‘Marathon’, a heavy track to begin with, with its chilled out beat and conscious lyrics. Produced by long-time friend The Alchemist, ‘Marathon’ also features the vocals of Noelle, a new female songstress.

The Alchemist is the beat-maker for three more cuts on the album, as well as being named co-executive producer of the whole project. One of the other Alc songs is the title track ‘Neighborhood Watch’, which is only average in comparison to the other beats Alc has produced for the group.

The album picks up again with ‘Tryin’ to Breathe’, which samples ‘It Ain’t Rainin’ by The Dramatics. On this track, rappers Evidence and Rakaa rhyme about their everyday struggles with money, girls and the po po (that’s police, if you didn’t know), getting through life “jus’ tryin’ to breathe.”

For those video gamers out there, addicted to racing games like ‘Need For Speed Underground’, you will immediately recognise ‘Who’s Who’, one of the highlights of the game’s soundtrack. If you didn’t know that this track was on the Dilated Peoples’ album, you’d probably assume that it was an LL Cool J track, for Evidence sounds much like the Ladies’ Love at the start of the song.

‘Neighborhood Watch’ doesn’t have many guest appearances, but the few that do feature are worth it. Of course, Kanye West appears on the hit single ‘This Way’, which made a mark on the UK Top 10 this summer. The West-produced track is a real gem, which helped to bridge the gap between veteran hip hop fans and the younger generations of rap disciples.

The track ‘Poisonous’ sees a guest appearance by Devin The Dude, on a slightly commercial track which warns guys about a certain type of girl: ‘She ain’t the one to trust/ She’ll treat your heart like Toys ‘R’ Us/ She’s dangerous to touch/ Stay away she’s poisonous.’

However, the guys seem to have gone through a bit of a creative dry spell midway through the album, with cuts like ‘Big Business’, ‘World On Wheels’ and ‘Closed Session’ not leaving much of an impact on me.

Nevertheless, the Los Angeles natives have done well with this LP, and DJ Babu closes the set nicely with a mix named ‘DJ Babu in Deep Concentration’.

Overall, not a bad effort from the 213 boys, but I feel that they can do much better. There’s nothing that really compares to early releases such as ‘Triple Optics’ and ‘Third Degree’, and it’s a shame. Oh well, there’s always the next album to look forward to!

Rating: 3 out of 5

Top 3 tracks:
13) This Way
6) Poisonous
1) Marathon

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