Reverend Run: Distortion : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Run-D.M.C. were the valedictorians of the old school of hip-hop, but they never figured out a way to graduate. Their highly touted comeback album, 2001's Crown Royal, was a pallid affair notable for lots of guest stars and the almost total absence of DMC. On this twenty-three-minute disc, Run demonstrates that in 2005, he still has flow and vocal presence -- and almost nothing to say. There's the obligatory tribute to the late DJ Jam Master Jay (built around a clunky sample of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama"); lots of cliches, like "It's time for the show"; and inanity like "Boom-boom-ditty-ditty-boom-ditty-boom-ditty." Perhaps Run, an ordained minister, felt that rapping about Christianity would be uncommercial; he does it on only one track, "The Way." But a CD of biblical rap would have been vastly more interesting than just tepid updates of the Run-DMC sound; Distortion feels like a doo-wop group trying to add psychedelic guitar solos.

GAVIN EDWARDS

(Posted: Oct 20, 2005)

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Track List

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I Use To Think I Was Run (Album Version (Edited)) (track not available in Rhapsody)
Home Sweet Home (Album Version (Edited)) (track not available in Rhapsody)
Boom Ditty (Album Version (Edited)) (track not available in Rhapsody)
Breaktime (Album Version (Edited)) (track not available in Rhapsody)
High And Mighty Joe (Album Version (Edited))
The Way (Album Version (Edited))
Don't Stop Y'All (Album Version (Edited)) (track not available in Rhapsody)
Mind On The Road (track not available in Rhapsody)
Take A Tour (Album Version (Edited)) (track not available in Rhapsody)
Distortion (Album Version (Edited)) (track not available in Rhapsody)