Nia

Rolling Stone (4/27/00, p.73) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...Celebrates old-school hip-hop while infusing it with inspired new twists....This longing for post-gangsta hip-hop has been expressed before but has seldom rocked so well." Spin (3/00, p.151) - 8 out of 10 - "...deeply sussed funk....NIA is cogent, committed songwriting; it bumps to the hardheaded notion that hip-hop can change minds..." Entertainment Weekly (2/18/00, p.86) - "...defines West Coast indie rap aesthetic....bringing hip-hop morality plays, mad-libbibg freestyles, videogame-worthy adventure tales and poet Nikki Giovanni's final word on rap braggadocio, all riding taut, jazzy funk..." - Rating: A- Alternative Press (4/00, p.80) - 4 out of 5 - "...combines '99s excellent A2G EP with new material, much of it every bit as absorbing....that classic combo of brainiac wit, old-skool positivity and funkadelic freestyling is [their] stock in trade..." CMJ (1/31/00, p.3) - "...does for West Coast underground hip-hop what Mos Def and Black Star have been doing for the Big East - matching fierce, uplifting poetics to irresistible beats....gospel music of the 21st century." Vibe (4/00, p.183) - "...identify themselves as the lost children of the socially conscious soul stirrers of the '60s and '70s....an ecstatic declaration that asserts the affirmative power of music in consciousness elevation..." The Source (3/00, pp.250-2) - 3 mics out of 5 - "...refreshingly distict...an elaborate fusion of jazz, soul, hip-hop and spoken-word-style rhymes....you gotta be in the hip-hop, bohemian, coffee house state of mind....evidence of a group willing to take creative risks..."