Mike Ladd is unique. Not because he's crossed over from the slam to the world of hip-hop - plenty of poets are making the transition to MC. It's because he's also a good producer. In fact, he's better than good. His production prowess easily outshines his skills on the mic, and while it's not like that's never happened before (I'm pointing at Dr. Dre, Diddy and Kanye West), it's not something that goes on in the underground. You usually have producers and MCs, and they usually collaborate without dipping a toe into the other side of the lake. Not so with Mike Ladd and the players on this album. Ladd doesn't really "present" his album, Father Divine, as much as in the liner notes he presents a team working as Father Divine. Heads will probably recognize High Priest from Antipop, who does synthwork on a couple tracks, but there is a diverse set of musicians here, and the makeup is like a traditional band: guitar, synth, a little percussion, and the leader who lines it all up together under his own sensibilities, Mike Ladd himself.
So here's what you need to know: Father Divine was developed over two very eventful years in Ladd's life as a project to capture the tape cassette aesthetic of old ROIR releases. And although Father Divine himself is an interesting historical character, and probably would be good subject matter for an actual concept album (look him up on Wikipedia if you don't know), the only song to refer explicitly to him is album highlight "so 'n so," which has a soft, buzzing synth line behind Ladd's commanding spoken word delivery. In a way, this song is a perfect middle ground for the album. It's about halfway through, is the only track that has spoken word vocals instead of rhymes, and isn't a pure instrumental.
Divine is an album heavy on instrumentals: less than half the songs actually feature Ladd doing his business on the mic. This isn't a bad thing, because although Ladd's delivery syncs up and bounces off the beats in a way that feels right, his rhymes aren't the best. They're not bad - and his smooth, mostly laid back delivery makes up for it - but they're just not as high caliber as a bunch of underground MCs you could name. But this wasn't really meant to be a straight hip-hop album; it's more like the music is under the label of hip-hop to give it a direction. And while it is obvious that Ladd gets his sound from a variety of influences, the record is unified. The distinct sound of the analogue synthesizers and the near-perfect programming really tie together the styles into an album. All the programming was done by Ladd, and he really knows how to get sounds and where to place them.
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