M9 is currently sitting 7th in the 2012 hip hop chart, just above nas. Looks like our hype didnt fall on deaf ears after all. M9 squad did a good job ;)
For me Black Athena is the better album....although I'm not at all surprised to hear you think otherwise. Tbh I think I'm going to end up in a small minority of people who like it more than Ancient Future. I'd say Ancient Future has slightly higher highs, but Black Athena is more consistently awesome from start to finish. Anyway, the albums have significantly different sounds so it's not surprising our opinions differ so much.
I can see why you wouldn't be so enthralled with Black Athena. It's more consistent, but it doesn't have the standout, memorable songs of the previous album.
Just to clarify, my comment on rainshine's page was aimed at him rather than you. Like I said earlier, your disappointment/indifference towards the album doesn't come as a major surprise. With rainshine though, I like to think I know his hip-hop taste quite well, and I don't know why he wouldn't find a lot of the tracks on B.A. EXTREMELY memorable.
Honestly man, I just really don't like the Endemic produced, yankee flavoured tracks on Ancient Future, which is what I think breaks its consistency. There's 3 or 4 tracks on that album which I actively dislike (I still gave it a 5, which shows just how much I loved everything else), whereas although Black Athena isn't as high quality overall, it doesn't sway from that solid noir sound.
Apparently it's entirely produced by 7th Dan and Ringz of Saturn. 7th Dan produced 'Contraband', 'Paper Cuts', 'The Shallow Deep' 'Requiem' & 'Hydrochloric Sonnets' on Black Athena. He also did the beats for 'No Man's Land' (Magna Carta) and 'Dark Skies' (Ancient Future). Ringz of Saturn co-produced 'Industrial Pastures' & 'Tunnel Rats' with 7th Dan on B.A.
For me Black Athena is the better album....although I'm not at all surprised to hear you think otherwise. Tbh I think I'm going to end up in a small minority of people who like it more than Ancient Future. I'd say Ancient Future has slightly higher highs, but Black Athena is more consistently awesome from start to finish. Anyway, the albums have significantly different sounds so it's not surprising our opinions differ so much.
Make of all that what you will :)