''Expansion Team'' is the second studio album by American hip hop trio

Dilated Peoples Dilated Peoples is an American Los Angeles-based Hip hop music, hip hop trio, composed of rapper and record producer Evidence (musician), Evidence, rapper Rakaa, and Beat Junkies deejay and record producer DJ Babu. The group is better known in t ...

. It was released on October 23, 2001, through

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007), and simply known as Capitol, is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-base ...

. The recording sessions took place at

D&D Studios D&D Studios was a recording studio at 320 West 37th Street in the Garment District and Hudson Yards neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. Artists who recorded there included Jay-Z, Foxy Brown, The Notorious B.I.G., Fat Joe, Nas, Gang Sta ...

and The Dewgarde Crib of Hits in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

, at SoundProof and Skip Saylor Recording in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, at Encore Studios and Mad Dog Studios in

Burbank Burbank may refer to: Places Australia * Burbank, Queensland, a suburb in Brisbane United States * Burbank, California, a city in Los Angeles County * Burbank, Santa Clara County, California, a census-designated place * Burbank, Illinois, ...

, at Front Page Recorders in Glendale, and at The Studio in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

. The album was produced by members

Evidence Evidence for a proposition is what supports the proposition. It is usually understood as an indication that the proposition is truth, true. The exact definition and role of evidence vary across different fields. In epistemology, evidence is what J ...

and

DJ Babu Christopher E. Oroc, stage name Melvin Babu (born September 17, 1974), better known as DJ Babu or DJ Babu the Dilated Junkie, is a Filipino-American DJ and record producer. He is a member of DJ crew the Beat Junkies, Los Angeles-based hip hop t ...

, as well as

Alchemist Alchemy (from the Arabic word , ) is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practised in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first ...

, Joey Chavez,

Da Beatminerz Da Beatminerz are an American hip-hop production team from Bushwick, Brooklyn that is popular with the underground hip-hop scene. History The crew, originally composed of brothers Mr. Walt (born June 2, 1968) and DJ Evil Dee (born May 24, 1971 ...

DJ Premier Christopher Edward Martin (born March 21, 1966), known professionally as DJ Premier (also known as Preemo), is an American record producer and DJ. He has been frequently lauded as one of hip hop's greatest producers by publications such as '' ...

, Juju, and

Questlove Ahmir K. Thompson (born January 20, 1971), known professionally as Questlove (stylized as ), is an American drummer, record producer, disc jockey, filmmaker, music journalist, and actor. He is the drummer and joint frontman (with Black Thought ...

. It features

guest appearance The term guest appearance generally denotes the appearance of a guest in an artistic or pop-culture setting. The guests themselves (referred to as guest artists, featured artists, guest stars, or guest fighters, depending on context), are disting ...

s from

Black Thought Tariq Luqmaan Trotter (born October 3, 1973), better known as Black Thought, is an American rapper, singer, actor and the lead Emcee (hip hop), MC of the hip hop group The Roots, which he co-founded with drummer Questlove in Philadelphia. Regar ...

, the

Beat Junkies The Beat Junkies is an American hip hop crew of DJs specializing in turntablism. Established in 1992 in Cerritos, California by J. Rocc. As of 2014, The Beat Junkie Crew also host their own record pool, clothing line and radio station. The B ...

members

DJ Rhettmatic DJ Rhettmatic (born Nazareth Nirza; May 10, 1969) is a producer, disc jockey and member and part creator of Southern California's first turntable band, the Beat Junkies. Career Rhettmatic began his DJ career in 1983, with Double Platinum, a DJ ...

, J. Rocc and Melo-D, and the

Likwit Crew The Likwit Crew is an American hip hop collective from California, founded by Compton-based rapper King Tee. Considered to have been originated in 1992 when King Tee introduced Tha Alkaholiks trio, composed of members E-Swift, J-Ro and Tas ...

members Defari, Phil Da Agony and

tha Alkaholiks Tha Alkaholiks, also known as Tha Liks, is an American hip hop trio from Los Angeles. Since the early 1990s they have produced party music with a hardcore hip hop edge, powered by the beats of DJ and producer E-Swift (he was born Eric Brooks ...

, with

cameo appearance A cameo appearance, also called a cameo role and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief guest appearance of a well-known person or character in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking on ...

s from Cokni O'Dire,

GuRu Guru ( ; International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: ''guru'') is a Sanskrit term for a "mentor, guide, expert, or master" of certain knowledge or field. In pan-Indian religions, Indian traditions, a guru is more than a teacher: tr ...

Noelle Scaggs Noelle Scaggs (born October 8, 1979) is an American musician and singer-songwriter from Los Angeles, known as the co-lead singer of the pop group Fitz and the Tantrums. Scaggs has also had numerous collaborations with the Black Eyed Peas, Dilate ...

, and

Shae Fiol Shae Fiol (born Shae Geever on December 2, 1978, in Portland, Oregon) is a Cuban-American singer-songwriter who currently lives in New York City. The name Shae was given to her after the Cuban revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara. Her mother is Amer ...

. The album debuted at number 36 on the ''Billboard'' 200 and number 8 on the

Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a music chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine that ranks R&B and hip-hop albums based on sales in the United States and is compiled by Luminate. The chart debuted as Hot R&B LPs in the issue dated January 30, ...

in the United States. It also made it to number 55 on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...

and number 10 on the UK Hip Hop and R&B Albums Chart, as well as number 88 in Scotland, and number 136 in France. Its lead single, "Worst Comes to Worst", peaked at number 29 on the UK Singles Chart.

Critical reception

''Expansion Team'' was met with generally favorable reviews from

music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on ...

. At

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a

normalized Normalization or normalisation refers to a process that makes something more normal or regular. Science * Normalization process theory, a sociological theory of the implementation of new technologies or innovations * Normalization model, used in ...

rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

score of 71, based on twelve reviews. Evan Serpick of ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...

'' described the album as "L.A.'s underground hip-hop heroes sound like a welcome throwback to rap's politically conscious and musically diverse early-'90s period".

E! Online E! Entertainment Television is an American basic cable television network. It is owned by the NBCUniversal Media Group division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The channel focuses primarily on pop culture, celebrity based reality shows and movies. ...

reviewer wrote: "radio stations will still probably ignore the old-school, stylish singles like "Proper Propaganda" and "Heavy Rotation" that make ''Expansion Team'' a winner".

CDNow CDnow, Inc. was a dot-com company that operated an online shopping website selling compact discs and music-related products. In April 1998, during the dot-com bubble, the company was valued at over $1billion (~$ in ). In July 2000, it was acqui ...

compared the album with treir previous effort stating: "more polished sonic effort than Dilated's 2000 debut, '' The Platform''".

Nathan Rabin Nathan Rabin () is an American film and music critic. Rabin was the first head writer for ''The A.V. Club'', a position he held until he left the ''Onion'' organization in 2013.

of ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was created in ...

'' saw the album "makes good on ''The Platforms promise by showcasing a battle-tested but exuberant group at the top of its form". ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' reviewer wrote: "the 16-track set showcases Dilated's combination of intelligent lyrics and mind-blowing production". ''

Dotmusic ''Dotmusic'' was a music webzine that existed as a standalone website from 1 June 1995 to December 2003. Initially intended as the web complement to the UK music industry trade magazine ''Music Week'', the site was relaunched in December 1998 as a ...

'' reviewer wrote: "in a time when the music is either dominated by commercial personas or the proteges of the new breed of super producers, ''Expansion Team'' is an essential shot in the arm for the increasingly stagnant underground". '' Urb'' critic found that the album "reveals Dilated Peoples to be a straight-up hip-hop group, for better or worse". In mixed reviews, ''

Blender A blender (sometimes called a mixer (from Latin ''mixus, the PPP of miscere eng. to Mix)'' or liquidiser in British English) is a kitchen and laboratory appliance used to mix, crush, purée or emulsify food and other substances. A stationary ...

'' saw the album "bursts with neat production touches". ''

Alternative Press Alternative press may refer to: Individual publications * ''Alternative Press'' (magazine), an American music magazine Alternative journalism * Alternative media ** Alternative media (U.S. political left) ** Alternative media (U.S. political r ...

'' found "the only problem is that in making way for all the MCs, Dilated's tracks seem too peripheral, keeping Expansion from sustaining the momentum its MCs command". ''Q'' magazine reviewer wrote: "DJ Babu looks to the old school for his mix of melody and beats, giving the whole project a fluid and classy feel with more than a nod to their heroes,

Run-DMC Run-DMC (also formatted Run-D.M.C., RUN DMC, or some combination thereof) was an American hip-hop group formed in Hollis, Queens, New York City in 1983 by Joseph Simmons, Darryl McDaniels, and Jason Mizell. Run-DMC is regarded as one of the mos ...

Neil Drumming Neil Drumming is an American journalist and filmmaker. Formerly a producer with the radio show ''This American Life'', in 2020 Drumming became managing editor with Serial Productions, the company that created the podcasts ''Serial'' and '' S-Town' ...

writing for ''

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spin (physics) or particle spin, a fundamental property of elementary particles * Spin quantum number, a number which defines the value of a particle's spin * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thr ...

'' resumed: "Dilated Peoples continue to hold down hip-hop's middle ground with inoffensive mic purism and sophisticated production a la mid-'90s DJ Premier".

Track listing

;Sample credits *Track 2 contains elements of "I Forgot to Be Your Lover" performed by William Bell and elements of "

Survival of the Fittest "Survival of the fittest" is a phrase that originated from Darwinian evolutionary theory as a way of describing the mechanism of natural selection. The biological concept of fitness is defined as reproductive success. In Darwinian terms, th ...

" performed by

Mobb Deep Mobb Deep was an American Hip-hop, hip hop duo formed in Queens, New York (state), New York in 1990. Consisting of rappers/songwriters/record producers Prodigy (rapper), Prodigy and Havoc (musician), Havoc, they are considered to be among the pr ...

. *Track 3 contains elements of "DBC Let the Music Play" performed by

Stetsasonic Stetsasonic is an American hip hop band. Formed in 1981 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, Stetsasonic was one of the first hip hop acts to perform with a full band and use live instrumentation in their recordings, paving the way for future ...

. *Track 8 contains elements of "Sanity" performed by

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. *Track 14 contains elements of "Too Real to Live a Lie" performed by David Porter.

Personnel

*Michael "

" Peretta – vocals, producer (tracks: 5, 9, 15), recording (tracks: 4, 9, 12, 14, 16), sequencing *Rakaa " Iriscience" Taylor – vocals, recording (tracks: 4, 9, 12, 14, 16), sequencing *Chris "

" Oroc – scratches, producer (tracks: 7-9, 11, 14), recording (tracks: 4, 8, 9, 11, 14, 16), mixing (track 11), sequencing *Keith "

Guru Guru ( ; International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: ''guru'') is a Sanskrit term for a "mentor, guide, expert, or master" of certain knowledge or field. In pan-Indian religions, Indian traditions, a guru is more than a teacher: tr ...

" Elam – additional vocals (track 2) *Olivier " Cokni O'Dire" Williams – additional vocals (track 4) *Rico " Tash" Smith – vocals (track 5) *James "

J-Ro Tha Alkaholiks, also known as Tha Liks, is an American hip hop trio from Los Angeles. Since the early 1990s they have produced party music with a hardcore hip hop edge, powered by the beats of DJ and producer E-Swift (he was born Eric Brooks ...

" Robinson – vocals (track 5) * Shae Geever – additional vocals (track 5) *Jason "Phil Da Agony" Smith – vocals (track 7) *

– additional vocals (track 12) *Tariq "

" Trotter – vocals (track 14) *Duane A. "Defari" Johnson Jr. – vocals (track 15) *Chris "

" Martin – scratches & producer (track 3) *Jason "J. Rocc" Jackson – scratches (track 9) *Nazareth "

" Nirza – scratches (track 9) *David "Melo-D" Mendoza – scratches (track 9) *Anton Pukshansky – bass (track 15), recording (track 7), mixing (tracks: 7, 9, 15, 16) *Kurt "DJ Revolution" Hoffman – scratches (track 15), sequencing *Alan "

The Alchemist An alchemist is a person who practices alchemy. Alchemist or Alchemyst may also refer to: Books and stories * ''The Alchemist'' (novel), the translated title of a 1988 allegorical novel by Paulo Coelho * ''The Alchemist'' (play), a play by Ben ...

" Maman – producer (tracks: 1, 2, 10) *Ewart "

Evil Dee Da Beatminerz are an American hip-hop production team from Bushwick, Brooklyn that is popular with the underground hip-hop scene. History The crew, originally composed of brothers Mr. Walt (born June 2, 1968) and DJ Evil Dee (born May 24, 1971 ...

" Dewgarde – producer & recording (track 4) *Walter " Mr. Walt" Dewgarde – producer (track 4) *Jerry "JuJu" Tineo – producer (track 6) *Joey Chavez – producer (tracks: 12, 16), additional producer (track 5) *Ahmir " ?uestlove" Thompson – producer (track 13) *Metis Cole – co-producer (track 16) *Kevin Bergman – recording (track 1) *Leo "Swift" Morris – recording (tracks: 1, 2) *Kieran Walsh – mixing (tracks: 1, 8, 14) *Eddie Sancho – mixing (tracks: 2, 4, 6, 10), recording (track 3) *Norty Cotto – mixing (track 3) *Dexter Thibou – recording (track 4) *James McCrone – recording (track 5) *Troy Staton – mixing (tracks: 5, 12) *Jason Vescio – recording (track 6) *Jason Bacher – recording (track 10) *Brandon Winslow – mixing (track 11) *Scott Oyster – recording & mixing (track 13) *Jeff Chestek – recording (track 13) *

Bernie Grundman Bernie Grundman (born 16 December 1943, Minneapolis) is an American audio engineer. He is most known for his mastering work and his studio, Bernie Grundman Mastering, which he opened in 1984 in Hollywood. The studio, which includes engineers Chr ...

– mastering *Brent Rollins – art direction *Brian " B+" Cross – photography *Block – photography *Ron Laffitte – A&R *Hope Carr – sample clearance

Charts

Certifications

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Expansion Team (Album) 2001 albums Capitol Records albums Dilated Peoples albums Albums produced by DJ Babu Albums produced by Questlove Albums produced by DJ Premier Albums produced by Da Beatminerz Albums produced by Evidence (musician) Albums produced by the Alchemist (musician)