This came out in 2000 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Think of the Bay Area Quannum musical collective as the Shadow cabinet — as in DJ Shadow.
Rappers and hip-hoppers like Lyrics Born, Lateef the Truth Speaker, Chief Xcel and Gift of Gab have been collaborators on many of Shadow’s recordings for years, when they aren’t issuing their own albums in various combinations (Lyrics and Lateef team up as Latyrx, while Xcel and Gab go by Blackalicious). This collection serves as the ultimate sample platter. And quite a meal it is — heaping helpings of spectacular vernacular, sci-fi sensibility and verbal pyrotechnics set atop tracks of P-Funkadelicious, grits ’n’ gravy grooves or Shadow’s late-night, record-geek constructs. Never mind the Quannum Spectrum — this compilation covers the spectrum of hip-hop, period.
