Emcee and producer Sentence made a name for himself over the past 8 years in the unexpected setting of Denver, Colorado, where hip hop is the last thing one would expect to see. Recently transplanted to Harlem, NYC, he hasn’t skipped a beat and has continued to keep his career elevating.
Sentence’s style is uniquely-crafted, but based in the roots of traditional hip hop â€" with a heavy emphasis being put on both the movement of the beat and the technicality of the lyrics. Although his style doesn’t fit into any single category very easily, it could be described as some sort of hybrid between traditional party hip hop and the thoughtful, poetic avant-garde. Regardless of how it’s described, it’s been proven to win over crowds of everyone from rock fans to hardcore hip hop heads.
The live performance, which can be argued to be the catalyst of hip hop, is something that Sentence never comes up short with. His skill on stage has been honed by nearly a decade of live performances, including tours to the Northwest at least three times every year. Besides headlining on tours, Sentence has also performed with many of hip hop’s legends, such as KRS One, Aceyalone, Atmosphere, Aesop Rock, Lyrics Born, RJD2, Black Sheep, Mr. Lif, Beat Junkies, Visionaries, Raekwon, Jungle Brothers, Blackalicious, Oldominion, Typical Cats, and many, many more.
Sentence’s track record also includes producing the first track that independent hip hop superstars Slug (of Atmosphere) and Sage Francis ever appeared on together. He has also been featured on multiple compilations, including CD Baby’s “Thick Cuts of Beats,” Radio 1190’s “Local Shakedown,” and Paris, France’s DJ Pray One’s “F*ck the Radio.”
“There and Back,” Sentence’s most recent CD, was met with superb reviews and phenomenal acclaim by the public. The album received praise from sources as high up as URB Magazine, who wrote “His gusto and advocacy for the hip-hop ethos is hard to resist...” College radio was also impressed and “There and Back” reached the Top 40 Hip Hop charts on CMJ.
Learning to be successful in a place like Denver, Sentence acquired guerrilla tactics and has learned to not only adapt to his surroundings, but to make them into as rich an environment as possible. His music is receiving more and more notoriety and doesn’t show any signs of slowing.
----------URB Magazine Review - May 2005/ vol.15 no.126----------
With a snappy delivery that falls somewhere between old-school affinity of PUTS' Double K and Aesop Rock's syllabic fluency, Denver MC Sentence makes an imposing presence for a cat most of us wouldn't know from Paragraph. His gusto and advocacy for the hip-hop ethos is hard to resist, too.
3 1/2 out of 5 stars
----------KaffieneBuzz.com review - 3/25/05----------
Hip-hop and rap are friends again. Sentence reigns from Denver with a
real mix of real turntables, real beats, real samples and real rap.
It's refreshing to hear something so classic.
There and Back is what it says: a trip back to the time when rap was
built in a basement with live scratches (cred to DJ Thought), when
lyrics were intense but weren't afraid of bordering on funny, even
cheesy-in any case summary pronouncements of both the miniscule facts
and the overarching trials of life as the MC knows it.
Funky, jazzy samples and beats as classic as they come, this stuff harks
back to Grandmaster Flash with a notable sharpness that channels
Disposable Heroes. Sentence fearlessly retreads the classic styles that
rap, lately, has almost forgotten; and does it at a time when we could
all use a reminder.
Prevailing poignancy emerges at track eight. "With You" is modern day
underground along the lines of Murs and Slug; and the album reigns on
in modernity.
To top this off, Sentence has enough ferocity in his battle lyrics to
make him a modern threat with a classic knowledge. Take a lesson and
watch your back; Sentence has been smart enough to watch his.
www.voiceboxrecords.com
-Jef Hoskins, March 25, 2005
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