Train of Thought (Reflection Eternal album)

Train of Thought
Studio album by Reflection Eternal
Released	October 17, 2000
Recorded	1999-2000
Studio	Electric Lady Studios in New York City
Genre	Hip hop, neo soul
Length	65:53
Label	Rawkus
Producer	Hi-Tek, Weldon Irvine, Talib Kweli
Reflection Eternal chronology
Train of Thought (2000) Revolutions per Minute (2010)
Talib Kweli chronology
Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star (1998) Train of Thought (2000) Quality (2002)
Hi-Tek chronology
Train of Thought (2000) Hi-Teknology (2001)
Singles from Train of Thought
"Move Somethin'" Released: July 18, 2000 "The Blast" Released: July 16, 2001 "Down for the Count" Released: 2001 (UK only)

Train of Thought is the debut album of American hip hop duo Reflection Eternal, released October 17, 2000, on Rawkus Records. Collaborating as a duo, rapper Talib Kweli and DJ and hip hop producer Hi-Tek recorded the album during 1999 to 2000, following their individual musical work that gained notice in New York's underground scene during the late 1990s.^[1][2] Kweli had previously worked with rapper Mos Def as the duo Black Star,^[3] and Hi-Tek had served as producer on the duo's debut album.^[4]

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Chicago Sun-Times	[5]
Entertainment Weekly	B−[6]
The Guardian	[7]
Los Angeles Times	[8]
NME	8/10[9]
Pitchfork	7.9/10[10]
Rolling Stone	[11]
The Source	4/5[12]
USA Today	[13]

Train of Thought was well received by music critics. Chicago Sun-Times writer Kyla Kyles said, "With a flurry of metaphors and below-the-basement underground beats, this train is on the right track. This disc proves that Kweli is a deep-thinking, gifted MC, and Hi Tek is an emerging wax master."^[5] AllMusic's Matt Conaway compared Reflection Eternal's music to the work of the Native Tongues collective, while writing that the album "houses enough merit to establish Talib as one of this generation's most poetic MCs".^[1] PopMatters writer Dave Heaton described Talib Kweli as "a hyper-articulate MC with a revolutionary's mind and a sensitive poet's heart, but he's also a world-class battle MC, able to rip other MCs' rhymes apart in a quick second".^[14] Kathryn Farr of Rolling Stone called Train of Thought "the rare socially aware hip-hop record that can get fists pumping in a rowdy nightclub".^[11]

Pitchfork critic Sam Eccleston wrote of Kweli's boastful lyrics, "Kweli uses the rhythm as a foundation, building rambling, baroque rhyme structures on top of them, exhibiting his cock-eyed 'skills'. This kind of braggadocio doesn't weaken the effort in the same way his moralizing self-canonization does, if only because he can often back those claims up".^[10] Noah Callahan-Bever of Vibe shared a similar sentiment, writing "Reflection Eternal's great weakness is Kweli's excessive preaching about the state of hip hop, but at least he cares".^[2] In The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), Jon Caramanica called it "thick with fierce street raps ('Down for the Count' and 'Ghetto Afterlife'), maudlin soul ('Love Language'), and the type of insightful versifying Kweli has made his stock-in-trade ('Memories Live' and 'This Means You')".^[15]

Track listing

Sample credits

Sample information for Train of Thought.^{[citation needed]}

Personnel

Album singles

Chart history

Album

Singles

Notes

References

• Nathan Brackett, Christian Hoard (2004). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide. Completely Revised and Updated 4th Edition. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.

External links

• Reflection Eternal: Train of Thought at Discogs
• Album Review at RapReviews

This page was last edited on 29 July 2023, at 12:02