Artifacts’ Sophomore LP ‘That’s Them’ Turns 18 Today

Moving forward from their successful debut, Jersey’s own El Da Sensei and Tame One needed no introduction three years later. But “Art Of Scratch” still opened up album with a raw, neck snapping introduction to the crew anyway. “Who’s this? The knotty headed terror and the sensei.”. By this point Between a Rock and a Hard Place (1994) swarmed the underground and built trust in all hip-hop fans. Their music has graffiti writers, b-boys and anyone immersed in the culture sold. Many call that record a classic, and there’s honestly no arguing that. How about their sophomore That’s Them?

Though not as critically acclaimed as the groups first record, this album falls far from short. Us real hip-hop junkies are not too interested in album sales and chart rankings; we are looking for quality and substance, which this album certainly obtains. Tame and El stayed true to their craft here and gave us what we expected from them following the debut – head nodding, raw underground boom-bap. The album has features from the likes of Lord Jamar, Showbiz, Da Beatminerz and other notable artists on and off the microphone. Covering all grounds and giving us the Artifacts sound we all loved in 1997, That’s Them is now eighteen years of age and still relevant.

Don’t sleep on their recent moves, either. As a group they’ve been crushing venues pretty often, which RESPECT. Magazine‘s Dread Solo had the pleasure of catching back in Philadelphia alongside Ras Kass and company. El Da Sensei has recently announced his upcoming XL release, and we heard he brought on some heavy hitters. “It’s gonna be beats, bars and Lo all over this album. Whatever you’re expecting – it’s going to exceed that!” Keep up with the release and everything going down in 2015. But while you wait check out the 1997 visual for “The Ultimate” below. Peace and love.