| Speech | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Speech |
| Cover: | Speech (Speech album).jpg |
| Released: | 1996 |
| Recorded: | 1994–95 |
| Genre: | Rap |
| Label: | Chrysalis[1] |
| Producer: | Speech |
| Next Title: | Hoopla |
| Next Year: | 1999 |
Speech is the first solo album by the American rapper Speech, released in 1996.[2] [3]
The album's first single was "Like Marvin Gaye Said (What's Going On)".[4] It first appeared on the Marvin Gaye tribute album .[5]
The album was produced by Speech, who also sang on some of the songs.[6] [7] He played most of the instruments on the album, and recorded it in his home studio. Speech contains guest appearances from Pappa Jon, Laurneá Wilkerson, and Foley.[8]
Trouser Press thought that "Speech shows that he can still construct a lulling, even groovy song cycle, but at this point he just doesn’t have the lyrical chops to give it substance."[9] Entertainment Weekly determined that, "with its rapturous echoes of Sly, Stevie, and Prince, Speech by Speech, the boss of the defunct Arrested Development, is more arresting than anyone had a right to expect." The Knoxville News Sentinel concluded that the album "restores some of the initial promise of his group Arrested Development before the band burned out in a blaze of self-importance a couple of years ago."
Vibe called the album "a mess," noting Speech's "desire to become the male Tracy Chapman."[10] The Boston Globe praised Speech's "gift for poppy, smoothly persuasive hip-hop, rather than the gnashing, in-your-face variety."[11] The New York Times stated that "the sound is rawer and less produced and layered than Arrested Development's music... Where Arrested Development sounded like many streams flowing into a single river, the styles, beats and words on Speech all seem to flow from a single stream-of-consciousness."[12]
AllMusic wrote that, "where his former group sounded rootsy and gritty even at their most laid-back, Speech's record sounds slick, generally lacking in funk or dirt."