There was a time when I was living in Chicago, that I turned my back on the newfangled underground hip-hop scene. When I first heard artists like Atmosphere and Anticon, I thought that hip-hip was really about to die. I thought it was over man. I thought the white goofballs had taken over and that as soon as the labels could get their grimy hands on the goofy kids, everything else would be pushed to the wayside. That was just me being prejudiced and scared I think. I kind of turned my back for a while on anything that wasn't street and hard and real and just grimy. Then I woke up and opened my eyes again to the fact that hip-hop is hip-hop and there's always gonna be something good coming from all sides of it if you keep your eyes open for it. Even Atmosphere is really impressing me these days. Well Diverse is certainly not one of the weird white kids, he's a straight up Chicago cat who comes with not only skills, intelligence and forward thinking rhymes, but ill patterns and flows that truly distinguish him from all of his peers. No he's not on some Psychodrama shit, and he's also not on some super abstract Anticon shit. He kind of bridges the gap between those scenes, both of which are underground hip-hop, but never really cross the same paths.
One A.M. is a fun record even when it's being serious. The beats come from a wide range of futuristic cats like RJD2 and Prefuse 73 and as a whole will keep your attention from start to finish.
By: Matt Sonzala