2011 Sphere of Hip-Hop Awards – Album of the Year

Sintax the Terrific & DJ Kurfu
Prince With A Thousand Enemies

(Illect Recordings)

We wrestled with this category more than any other category this year and even in years past. It was so difficult that we spread the debate across two different sessions. For each album listed we made a case for and against to see where each stood. A case could be made for any one of almost two dozen releases. At the end of our spirited debates, Prince With A Thousand Enemies was the one left standing.

There are no guest appearances on the album. One emcee and one producer. Everything fits together. Individual songs stand on their own and also are perfect pieces of the full album.

The concept of the album is loosely based around the Richard Adams novel “Watership Down.” The book is about… rabbits. Yup. For real? Yes. It’s all brilliantly executed however. Interweaving the story of the book with real world information and metaphor makes it heavily enjoyable. Many records fail at blending light hearted content with sobering subject matter, this album does not.

The entire presentation of the album musically and visually perfectly suit the effort. Extensive song background information is included and the album was even made available with a copy of the original book.

2011 was a year full of good albums and a few great ones. Prince With A Thousand Enemies is worth a long look to digest it’s brilliance.

Runners Up
116 Clique Man Up (Reach Records)
Die-Rek The Die-Version Project (Indie)
Macho Remember (Indie)
muzeONE Cold War (Illect Recordings)
theBREAX Never Arrive (Indie)

Honorable Mention
Bizzle Tough Love & Parables (Indie)
Braille Native Lungs (Humble Beast)
Playdough Hotdoggin (Indie)
Shai Linne The Attributes of God (Lamp Mode)
Shames Worthy The Album (Indie)
Tedashii Blacklight (Reach Records)

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Full coverage of the 2011 Awards
View all finalists and winners for the 2011 Sphere of Hip-Hop Awards

5 COMMENTS

  1. ONCE YOU REALLY UNDERSTAND WHAT SYNTAX AN KUFU DID ON THIS ALUM U WIIL UNDERSTAND HOW I NCREDIABLE THIS ALBUM TRULY IS EVERYBODY THIS IS TRUE ART AMAZING

  2. Yo Kurfu n Sintax.. pretty ill kids.. im bringing this around the chi with a jar of giardiniera

  3. Wouldn’t have known about this album without sphereofhiphop. Really enjoying it. Thanks for your work.

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