Sportn’ Life’s D. Black partners with producer B. Brown for The Blackest Brown EP, the follow-up to 2009’s transformative Ali’Yah. Click the album cover below for the FREE download link.

Most of the recent talk surrounding D. Black has been about his metamorphosis from a gangsta-oriented street hustler (as embodied on his debut LP, The Cause and Effect) to a yarmulke-wearing holy man (as revealed on last year’s Ali’Yah). His “re-birth” is further documented on The Blackest Brown EP, a short nine-track affair that deals strongly in God and religion.

Black’s Jewish faith is even more pronounced now on tracks like “My Mitzvot” where we find Black not rapping, but singing (as he does on a number of tracks) over a simple acoustic guitar progression. And “Shabbat Table Cloth” might be the only hip-hop party track to be about, well, a Shabbat table cloth. The production is disappointingly bland and derivative but the track stands out because of the unlikely subject matter.

Black collaborates with other Town emcees on about half of the album. We hear about God from some artists who don’t normally speak on religion or faith. Grynch and SK expose their spiritual sides on the angelic “The Light.” The best track is “Special,” a soulful, rolling hip-hop gospel exercise, blessed by a commanding Fatal Lucciauno. Rap music about God is rarely effective when thinly woven, lyrically or compositionally, and “Special” benefits from two emcees who demand attention based on their voices alone.

When the elements are right, rap as gospel can stir the soul like a good church service. On The Blackest Brown EP, D. Black moves his congregation more than he puts them to sleep, which is a good thing. The Seattle hip-hop movement is benefiting from his new unique voice.

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