WERS 88.9 fm - album review: apollo brown - the reset

By Daniel Schneider
6.24.10

Somewhere in America there is a man with near-perfect knowledge of Motown's full catalogue of music; wherever this man is, if Apollo Brown ever met him, he would probably send Brown's ass back to the Holland-Dozier-Holland School of Soul. Every track on Apollo's latest album, The Reset, features samples that sound like they were pulled from Billie Holiday's record collection. It's beautiful, it's the root of hip-hop—and it's pretty good. But not great.

The Reset is a good album for anyone who loves Detroit, and not just because of its Motown connections, but because Apollo does an excellent job of embodying the entire mindset of the Detroit black man (which we all can enjoy, gringos included).  His understanding of "the struggle," not only comes from his own difficult life (to be a bedroom producer for nearly a decade is no easy thing), but also seems to embody reverberations from organizations like the Detroit-founded Nation of Islam. Lyrics like "the reason my brothers remain hollow/consistent thought patterns that follow the same motto" show an MC's understanding of issues plaguing the Black community; but its on songs like "Brag Language" where Apollo starts to let the heat fly, saying "we're still stuck in '88/wearin' corduroy denims/still stuck with slave names/like Soulja Boy Tell 'Em." Songs like "Brainwash" and "Odds Ain't Fair" make no secret of the crummy lot given to an American Black male (even one with a college degree, like Brown).

 And the Detroit props don't even come close to stopping there, with local folk Black Milk, Big Pooh, Stik Figa, Magestik Legend, MED, Diamond District, The Left, and Oddisee stopping in to drop some verses. Black Milk and Big Pooh do a good job of being good-but-not-too-good on their respective tracks, but it becomes problematic when The Left drops a fairly bad verse on, unfortunately, "Real Detroit." If you're going to rap on a song called "Real Detroit" you'd better make it damn good.

As previously stated, Apollo's likely-encyclopedic knowledge of his city's music helps to make the production (which, if you didn't catch it, was all done by Apollo) solid on every track. Problems arise, however, when you take the album as a whole: after a few listens, The Reset begins to make even the most pious soul-sample fan a bit sleepy. This is probably because Motown/soul music is naturally sexy to most of us, especially hip hop fans—but it can be used ad nauseam, especially without enough lyrical bark to back it up.  Because while Apollo Brown is certainly rapping with some real intellect and mission, he never even begins to push himself in doing so ("Streets Won't Let Me Chill" and "Brag Language" being the two exceptions). I can hear Apollo, but I just can't fully feel Apollo.

I've been hard on Apollo Brown's freshman attempt at a full-length album, but it's only because I believe that he had (and still has) all of the elements he needs to succeed. In fact, I'll do him one better: Apollo Brown could be a great MC, and great beat maker, if he'd only light a little fire under his lyrics and his rhythms. Maybe he will—but, for now, The Reset remains a decent album, which showcases—if nothing else—a Detroit rapper/producer's massive potential.