Home > Music > Speech > Discography

Speech Hoopla Release Date: 1999 08 03 Label: TVT Records Three years in the making, Speech's second album finds the former Arrested Development frontman still working through his roots-centric vision of hip-hop. More Stevie Wonder than Silkk the Shocker, Hoopla incorporates much laid-back session material and even a few live-and-on-stage jam sessions, right in line with hip-hop's growing affection for building songs from the groove up with live musicians. Thankfully, his relaxed rapping style shows little influence from any recent developments in the rap world, and it's always right in line with the material he's performing. It could have been a remarkable comeback record, but Hoopla suffers from several bizarre miscues. Speech remakes the consistently annoying 4 Non Blondes hit "What's Up" for his own track, titled "The Hey Song." To give him credit, Speech rebuilds the song with a female R&B chorus instead of just sampling the original, but that hardly makes it any less grating. The deep grooves and Speech's considerable production skills make for several intriguing tracks ("Movin' On," "Clocks in Sync with Mine," "Our Image"), but Hoopla isn't exactly worthy of celebration. Keith Farley, All Music Guide Tracks: Title Composer Time 1 Do You Know How 2 Get to Hwy 85? (Skit) Wright, Miller, Thompson, Luster :46 2 Clocks in Sync with Mine Speech, Ward 5:36 3 Hey Song Speech, Four Non Blondes 4:50 4 I Think Yin Is Having a Baby, But I Don't Know (Skit) :21 5 Our Image Taylor Made, Bone, Sincere, Love, Speech 5:55 6 Movin' On Speech 3:52 7 Which Radio Station Has the Guts (Skit) :15 8 Mountain of Lonely Rick, Speech, Williams, Wolf 6:04 9 Are You Still with Me (Skit) :13 10 Slave of It All Speech 5:52 11 Leave a Message... Bye Bye (Skit) :13 12 Sumtimes I Do Speech, Ward, Williams 5:11 13 Yeah Yeah Speech 5:14 14 Real Love Stokes, Speech 5:27 15 Shut Down Our Mind Machine 1:03 16 Fist Goes On Speech, Stokes 4:58 17 Redemption Song Marley 6:14 18 If Life Is a River Sincere, Speech 4:27 19 Hey Song [Remix][*] Speech, Four Non Blondes 4:17 Releases: Year Type Label 1999 CD TVT Records 1999 CD TVT Records 1999 CS TVT Records

Member Of: Arrested Development More >> Similar Artists: Erykah Badu Wyclef Jean Digable Planets The Fugees Bahamadia More >>

Influenced By: Stevie Wonder Sly & the Family Stone More >>

Browse More Music:
# A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z