''Selling Live Water'' is a solo studio album by American hip hop artist Sole. It was released on

Anticon Anticon (often styled as anticon.) is an independent record label based in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1998 by seven musicians and manager Baillie Parker. It is now collectively owned among six musicians, co-founder Parker, and man ...

in 2003. It peaked at number 126 on the

CMJ CMJ Holdings Corp. is a music events and online media company, originally founded in 1978, which ran a website, hosted an annual festival in New York City, and published two magazines, ''CMJ New Music Monthly'' and ''CMJ New Music Report''. Th ...

Radio 200 chart, as well as number 7 on CMJ's Hip-Hop chart.

Production

''Selling Live Water'' was produced by

Telephone Jim Jesus George Chadwick, better known by his stage name Telephone Jim Jesus, is an alternative hip hop producer based in Oakland, California. He is a member of Restiform Bodies along with Passage and Bomarr. History Telephone Jim Jesus released his debu ...

, Alias,

Odd Nosdam David P. Madson (born 1976), better known by his stage name Odd Nosdam, is an American underground hip hop producer, DJ and visual artist. He is co-founder of the record label Anticon. He has remixed tracks by a variety of bands and artists in ...

, and

Jel Jel or JEL may refer to: * Jel (rapper), American record producer and rapper * Jel (singer), Japanese singer * Journal of Economic Literature The ''Journal of Economic Literature'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal, published by the American Ec ...

. The album draws influence from

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is ...

and

Howard Zinn Howard Zinn (August 24, 1922January 27, 2010) was an American historian, playwright, philosopher, socialist thinker and World War II veteran. He was chair of the history and social sciences department at Spelman College, and a political sc ...

. In an interview with ''

Westword ''Westword'' is a free digital and print media publication based in Denver, Colorado. ''Westword'' publishes daily online coverage of local news, restaurants, music and arts, as well as longform narrative journalism. A weekly print issue cir ...

'', Sole said, "''Selling Live Water'' is an attempt at sizing up the world as I see it in a more complete manner than making vague self-absorbed rants like my last record, '' Bottle of Humans''."

Critical reception

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

, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 77, based on 9 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Chris Dahlen of ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...

'' gave the album a 7.3 out of 10, saying: "Whether you dig it all or prefer him in small doses, Sole has never sounded more keyed up, heady and on target than he does on ''Selling Live Water'', and its wrap-up is almost anthemic." Ed Howard of ''

Stylus Magazine ''Stylus Magazine'' was an American online music and film magazine, launched in 2002 and co-founded by Todd L. Burns. It featured long-form music journalism, four daily music reviews, movie reviews, podcasts, an MP3 blog, and a text blog. Addi ...

'' gave the album a grade of B−, saying: "Fun, diverse, and complex, this record is yet another great addition to the increasingly varied Anticon aesthetic." He added: "Encompassing personal introspection, socio-political commentary, naked explorations of relationships, and obtuse poetry, ''Selling Live Water'' also represents a massive step forward in Sole's lyrical evolution."

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from liner notes. * Sole – vocals, entaludes *

– production (1, 15) * Alex Oropexa – mixing (1, 2, 4–13, 15), extra keyboards (7, 9) * Xopher D – mixing (1, 2, 4–13, 15), mastering * Alias – production (2, 6, 7, 9–13) * Why? – keyboards (3, 14), vocal harmonies (14) *

– production (3, 14), mixing (3, 14) *

– production (5, 8), cuts

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2003 albums Sole (hip hop artist) albums Anticon albums Albums produced by Alias (musician) Albums produced by Jel (music producer) Albums produced by Odd Nosdam