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X Clan-Grand Verbalizer, What Time Is It? [1990]

X Clan-Raise The Flag [1990]

So remember a million years ago when I said that TWO great rap albums came out on April 17, 1990 and then I wrote about People’s Instinctive Travels and totally ignored the other album? I’m here to rectify that and not just because I like saying “rectify.”

A long time ago, while Q Tip, Phife and Ali were attending Murray Bergtraum High in lower Manhattan, one of their classmates was Brother J who would go on to form a group called X Clan. So it’s fitting that both Tribe and X Clan released their first albums on the same day. Brother J is in my top ten MCs of all-time. So is Q Tip.

I didn’t get on to X Clan until Xodus came out in 1992 but To The East, Blackwards is the better of the two albums. It is still, pound for pound, one of the best rap albums of all time. There are 11 tracks and 9 of them are very, very good. The two best are posted above.

RIP Professor X, the Overseer.

-TH42