The Platform is the debut studio album by American hip hop trio Dilated Peoples. It was released on May 23, 2000, through Capitol Records. The recording sessions took place at Audio X in Burbank, D&D Studios in New York, Can Am Studios in Tarzana and Threshold Studios in Santa Monica. The album was produced by members Evidence and DJ Babu, as well as Alchemist, Joey Chavez, E-Swift, KutMasta Kurt, and T-Ray. It features guest appearances from Aceyalone, B-Real, Everlast, and Likwit Crew members Defari, Phil Da Agony, Planet Asia, and tha Alkaholiks. The album represents a movement of several California underground hip hop artists away from the violence and misogyny of gangsta rap, towards a more traditional, conscious form of rap.

The album debuted at number 74 on the Billboard 200 and number 30 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums in the United States. It also made it to number 89 on the UK Albums Chart and number 14 on the UK Hip Hop and R&B Albums Chart. The title track peaked at number 81 on the UK Singles Chart.

Critical reception

The Platform was met with generally favorable reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 69, based on eleven reviews. Wall of Sound reviewer found the album "for all its individual strengths, never hits any kind of synergy as an album".

Track listing

;Sample credits

  • Track 6 contains a sample from "Strictly Snappin' Necks" written by Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith as performed by EPMD.
  • Track 10 contains an element from "Clones" written by Phillip Blenman, Tariq Trotter, Karl Jenkins, Kenyatta Williams, Malik Smart, John Sebastian, Mark Sebastian and Steve Boone as performed by The Roots.
  • Track 12 contains element from "Tru Master" written by Peter Phillips and James Brown as performed by Pete Rock.
  • Track 15 contains a portion of "God Lives Through" written by Ali Shaheed Muhammad, Jonathan Davis and Malik Taylor as performed by A Tribe Called Quest.

Personnel

  • Michael "Evidence" Peretta – vocals, producer & mixing <small>(tracks: 1, 8, 11, 13, 14)</small>, executive producer
  • Rakaa "Iriscience" Taylor – vocals, executive producer
  • Chris "DJ Babu" Oroc – scratches <small>(tracks: 1–5, 7–11, 13, 14, 16)</small>, producer & mixing <small>(track 7)</small>, executive producer
  • Louis "B-Real" Freese – vocals <small>(track 3)</small>
  • Rico "Tash" Smith – vocals <small>(track 5)</small>
  • James "J-Ro" Robinson – vocals <small>(track 5)</small>
  • Edwin "Aceyalone" Hayes Jr. – vocals <small>(track 14)</small>
  • Jason "Planet Asia" Green – vocals <small>(track 16)</small>
  • Duane A. "Defari" Johnson Jr. – vocals <small>(track 16)</small>
  • Erik "Everlast" Schrody – vocals <small>(track 16)</small>
  • Jason "Phil Da Agony" Smith – vocals <small>(track 16)</small>
  • Alan "The Alchemist" Maman – scratches <small>(tracks: 6, 12)</small>, producer & mixing <small>(tracks: 2, 4, 6, 10, 12)</small>
  • Kurt "DJ Revolution" Hoffman – scratches <small>(track 15)</small>
  • Todd "T-Ray" Ray – producer <small>(track 3)</small>
  • Eric "E-Swift" Brooks – producer <small>(track 5)</small>
  • Joey Chavez – producer & mixing <small>(track: 9, 14, 16)</small>, recording <small>(tracks: 9, 16)</small>
  • "KutMasta Kurt" Matlin – producer & mixing <small>(track 15)</small>, engineering <small>(tracks: 4, 6, 13, 15)</small>
  • Ben "Beni B" Nickleberry Jr. – co-producer <small>(track 13)</small>
  • Sean Freehill – engineering <small>(tracks: 1, 5, 7, 8, 11, 14)</small>, recording <small>(tracks: 9, 10, 16)</small>, mixing <small>(tracks: 9, 16)</small>
  • Kieran Walsh – engineering <small>(tracks: 2, 10)</small>
  • Anton Pukshansky – mixing <small>(track 3)</small>
  • Djinji Brown – engineering <small>(track 12)</small>
  • Jesse "Biz" Stewart – recording <small>(track 14)</small>
  • Tom Coyne – mastering
  • Brent Rollins – art direction, design
  • Brian "B+" Cross – photography
  • Block – photography
  • Pat Shannahan – sample clearance

Charts

{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

|-

! scope="col"| Chart (2000)

! scope="col"| Peak<br /> position

|-

|-

|-

! scope="row" |US Billboard 200

| 74

|-

! scope="row" |US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard)

| 30

|}

References