Del tha Funkee Homosapien

Del's career hasn't proved to be the most fulfilling. Not because he makes bad records, or because he's become irrelevant. It's quite the opposite. Anyone who heard the futuristic funk-nastiness of Deltron3030 can attest that his rhymes and delivery are still a force to be reckoned with. Under different circumstances he could have been big, perhaps a huge star on the levels of Q-Tip and even De La Soul, but instead he's perpetually existed on the margins for his entire career.

So is the 11th Hour his last hurrah? Let's hope not. Throughout the album he still manages to fuse classically funky elements with futuristic style beats, in a pairing that serves his off the cuff, cartoon like voice well. Unfortunately, many of the songs sound like he's getting tired in his older age. Perhaps he's simply fed up with making it in the hip-hop game, as he vaguely disses those braggadocio aspects of the genre in the Parliament inspired "Bubble Pop." The track "Last Hurrah" hints further at this possibility, as Del picks apart jaded critics. Yet he seems at odds with his disgust, as he clearly still loves creating this art form. Whining about such things isn't necessarily flattering, plus he's never been an obvious performer, so in this case, his beef with the way his career has turned out isn't perfectly obvious.

If this is a swan song, Del could be choosing to exit with grace. His consistency over the last two decades shows within this album, making him an artist still worthy of appreciation. Yet even with hot indie-hop label Def Jux behind him now, its hard to power the reinvention of a man running on empty. If we're lucky he'll find a way to recharge his batteries and come back for another funky run.

—Michael D. Ayers
04.02.08

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It's been eight long years since Oakland rapper Del tha Funkee Homosapien has released a solo album. In the meantime, of course, he's managed to keep himself from completely falling off the hip-hop radar with his continued work with his Hiero label, his 3030 collaboration with Dan the Automator, and of course his appearances on the Gorillaz 2001 self-titled smash. The MC has been promising Eleventh Hour since at least 2006, and though it was originally slated to come out on Hiero, Del finally made the move to Brooklyn's Def Jux in order to get a product out on shelves. While the album's packaging makes it seem like a rushed affair (with its home-printer-esque graphics and color scheme, it takes on the look of a bad reggae mixtape, and the image of Del wearing an Ableton lanyard doesn't help things at all) but it's clear that musically, Eleventh Hour has had a lot of time and thought put into it. Del's beats are well made, but because they're not particularly complicated, his reliance on one keyboard sound gets a little tiresome, and it can be difficult to tell one track from another. This is not always helped by the fact that Del's rhymes, while intricate and witty and unique, pretty much only discuss one thing: his skills. Which are formidable, to be sure, but after countless bars of "I blind minds with thoughts too real to concoct" ("Hold Your Hand"), "Why do you think that you are all that? Cuz you ain't" ("Bubble Pop"), "You wanna know how you can do it with style when you're putting it down, I'll tell you/Del do that and more" ("I'll Tell You"), lines begin to sound, well, repetitive and a little trite. J-Zone, Opio, and KU, the other producers Del brings on -- unfortunately, Def Jux just seems to be here in name only, as no one from the label has much to do with the record, or is even listed in the liner notes -- help to break things up, but even J-Zone's fun "Funkyhomosapien," which helps add diversity to the overall pace, is anticlimactic, closing the album on Del affecting a British accent and saying "You think you're foxy?/Ha ha ha, never, never I tell you" on a fading note, a track more appropriate for the middle of a record, not the end. Eleventh Hour is certainly not a disappointment: Del's as good of a rapper as ever, and the way he fits his words into the beats, playing with his and their cadence, is truly spectacular, but he needs to challenge himself -- and his listeners -- more, lyrically and beat-wise, instead of relying on the same tried-and-true methods, if he really wants to continue his legacy. ~ Marisa Brown, All Music Guide