Nu Blaxploitation

The album was recorded in December 1997 and January 1998. Biz Markie contributed rap verses to "Schizo Man". "Blinky" is about the abuse of Abner Louima by the NYPD. "If 6 Was 9" is a cover of the Jimi Hendrix song; it contains a passage from the Turtles' "Happy Together". Byron covered a couple of Mandrill songs; the band was one of Byron's childhood favorites. "Dodi" references Dodi Fayed, while "Furman" refers to racist LAPD cop Mark Fuhrman, known from the trial of OJ Simpson. "Domino Theories" was inspired by the work of political scientist Andrew Hacker. ==Critical reception==

Time called the album "overtly political funk and rap" full of "dark, fertile electric grooves." The Chicago Reader deemed it "an incisive collection of loose-limbed funk, acerbic spoken word." Jazziz wrote that the album "unfolds like a series of existential concerns set to a backbeat—a churlish, unapologetic bit of brilliance that vamps, grooves, strolls, and riffs on several levels at once." Newsday labeled it "a one-of-a-kind testimony on what it's like to be a caring, daring African-American intellectual-bohemian at the tail end of the 20th Century." The Washington Post stated that "Byron has writer Sadiq tiresomely spell out his points with words that recall the sophomoric scribblings of punk poet Henry Rollins." AllMusic praised the "somber, chamber jazz arrangements and a bevy of funky, swinging charts." ==Track listing==