S.O.N.O.G.R.A.M., the awkwardly titled solo debut from One Be Lo, has steadily developed a healthy subterranean buzz. That's largely thanks to the enthusiastic support of the top underground tastemakers at Okayplayer, not to mention Pete Rock, who fell in love with the album and signed on to remix "Deceptacons." These same endorsements also proved vital to Little Brother, a North Carolina trio whose music, like One Be Lo's magnificent debut, offers the best of both worlds, combining the comfort of the old with the giddy excitement of discovering something new. Call it instant vintage, love at first listen, or hip-hop déjà vu: One Be Lo (formerly known as Binary Star's One Man Army, and also known as Nashid Sulaiman) is the kind of instantly endearing rapper fans hear for the first time and swear they've been supporting their entire lives.
It's hard not to catch a Low End Theory flashback while listening to tracks like "True Love," a fly love song that glides effortlessly on the wings of sparkling piano, rubbery stand-up bass, and woozy horns. One Be Lo combines the romantic with the extraterrestrial on "E.T.," another ethereal love song set to what sounds like a broken carousel spinning dizzily off course. Solidifying his status as a one-man musical army, he produced the entire album with partner Decompoze as the production team Trackezoids, swathing his sharp narratives, clever punch lines, and incisive social commentary in broken jazz and haunted atmospherics. Rooted in a strong sense of morality that never devolves into preaching, One Be Lo has crafted an album that's epic in scope and depth without sacrificing a scratchy sense of intimacy. The world weighs heavy on One Be Lo's shoulders, but his album is graced by a liberating lightness. He's emerged from the wreckage of Binary Star as a blazing musical constellation blessed with a remarkable purity and consistency of vision. S.O.N.O.G.R.A.M stands for "Sounds of Nashid Originate Good Rhymes And Music," but Nashid is selling himself short: His solo debut originates great rhymes and equally transcendent music.