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The familiar saying that everything old is new again is perhaps nowhere more evident than in the world of popular music where, almost from the beginning, purveyors of genres from jazz to heavy metal have used the collective sum of their musical influences as jumping-off points for fashioning their own particular sounds.  Like Are We There Yet? before it, Hindsight, the sophomore release from rapper John Reuben, takes its lyrical cues from the highly philosophical, often deeply introspective stance of pioneering early '90s alternative rap artists such as P.M. Dawn and A Tribe Called Quest.  The album's instrumental muse, on the other hand, seems firmly tied to all things 1970s.  The guitar-driven, heavily syncopated textures of "Soundman" hark back to the invigorating garage funk of groups like Mother's Finest.  The infectiously upbeat "Doin'," by comparison, recalls the pristine pop-soul confections of a pre-teen Michael Jackson and his four brothers.  And the rousing, horn-heavy groove of "Up and at Them" falls somewhere between The Ohio Players and the Theme from S.W.A.T.

Although the spiritual inclinations of Hindsight are, as a whole, buried a bit deeper underneath the surface than those of the debut, the second outing still offers an equally abundant supply of thought-provoking, Scripturally-based truths for those willing to work to unearth them.  "I Pictured It" operates around an ingenious analogy of deception as art, with the deceiver portrayed as the cunning artist and the victim's mind as the gallery inhabited by the painter's distorted portraits of reality.  The similarly clever title track (Repetition within/ Here it comes again/ Too insecure to pretend/ And the weather never changes) works as a sort of modern-day take on the Ecclesiastical dilemma.  And, even "Run the Night," an ostensibly simple celebration of a gathering of friends, references the DJ's desire to "spit wisdom" and "speak life through the night" rather than merely promote the party atmosphere.

Reuben's greatest asset continues to be his willingness to walk beyond that which is considered cool or trendy.  While Hindsight's inclusion of phrases like "dippity do" and mentions of church bake sales would be seen as veritable death knells by most hip-hop artists, Reuben's charming sense of quirkiness and self-deprecation allows such lighter-hearted material to flourish in spite of its inherent nerdiness.  On the other side of the coin, Reuben's braggadocious disses of hypocritical indie artists and self-assured boasts concerning his own lyrical prowess come across as equally convincing backed by his razor-sharp delivery and eminently clever word use.  Just as bands from Fleetwood Mac to Pink Floyd have created their most memorable work when inter-member tensions were at their highest, the inherent friction between the swaggering and self-effacing aspects of Reuben's character continues to make his own music so exciting.  Here's hoping that he doesn't choose to resolve the conflict anytime soon.

Bert Gangl 7/14/2002