All Balls Don't Bounce
{{Infobox album
| name = All Balls Don't Bounce
| type = studio album
| artist = Aceyalone
| cover = Allballsdontbounce.jpg
| alt =
| released = {{Start date|1995|10|24}}
| recorded =
| venue =
| studio = Kitchen Sync Studios; Hollywood Sound Recorders, Hollywood, CA
| genre = Alternative hip hop
| length = {{Duration|m=61|s=46}}
| label = Capitol
| producer = The Nonce, Punish, Vic Hop, Chillin Villin Empire, Mumbles, Aceyalone, Fat Jack
| prev_title =
| prev_year =
| next_title = A Book of Human Language
| next_year = 1998
| misc = {{Singles
| name = All Balls Don't Bounce
| type = studio album
| single1 = Mic Check
| single1date = 1995
| single2 = The Greatest Show on Earth
| single2date = 1996
}}
}}
All Balls Don't Bounce is the debut studio album by American rapper Aceyalone.{{cite magazine |title=All Balls Don't Bounce by Aceyalone |magazine=Billboard |date=Oct 14, 1995 |volume=107 |issue=41 |page=71}} It was released in 1995 on Capitol Records. In 2004, it was re-released on Project Blowed and Decon as All Balls Don't Bounce: Revisited with a bonus disc.{{cite magazine|first=Will|last=Hermes|author-link=Will Hermes|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Is53I1fXC1YC&pg=PA104|title=Reissues|magazine=Spin|volume=20|issue=5|date=May 2004|accessdate=May 22, 2020|page=104}} It was named by OC Weekly as one of the "Five Classic West Coast Rap Albums Turning 20 in 2015".{{cite news|first=Chaz|last=Kangas|url=http://blogs.ocweekly.com/heardmentality/2015/01/five_classic_west_coast_rap_albums_turning_20_in_2015.php|title=Five Classic West Coast Rap Albums Turning 20 in 2015|work=OC Weekly|date=January 28, 2015|accessdate=April 8, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150328232039/http://blogs.ocweekly.com/heardmentality/2015/01/five_classic_west_coast_rap_albums_turning_20_in_2015.php|archive-date=March 28, 2015|url-status=dead}}
Critical reception
{{Album ratings
| rev1 = AllMusic
| rev1score = {{Rating|5|5}}{{cite web|first=Steve|last=Huey|url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/all-balls-dont-bounce-mw0000645625|title=All Balls Don't Bounce – Aceyalone|publisher=AllMusic|accessdate=April 8, 2015}}
| rev2 = The Austin Chronicle
| rev2score = {{Rating|5|5}}{{cite news|first=Rashied|last=Gabriel|url=http://www.austinchronicle.com/music/1995-11-17/530246/|title=Aceyalone: All Balls Don't Bounce (Capitol)|work=The Austin Chronicle|date=November 17, 1995|accessdate=April 8, 2015}}
| rev3 = RapReviews
| rev4 = The Rolling Stone Album Guide
| rev4score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite book|chapter=Aceyalone|first=Michaelangelo|last=Matos|title=The New Rolling Stone Album Guide|title-link=The Rolling Stone Album Guide|editor1-last=Brackett|editor1-first=Nathan|editor2-last=Hoard|editor2-first=Christian|publisher=Simon & Schuster|edition=4th|year=2004|isbn=0-7432-0169-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/newrollingstonea00brac/page/4 4]}}
| rev5 = Spin
| rev5score = 9/10{{cite magazine|first=Charles|last=Aaron|author-link=Charles Aaron|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rV8XFH6DQVcC&pg=PA111|title=Aceyalone: All Balls Don't Bounce|magazine=Spin|volume=11|issue=7|date=October 1995|accessdate=June 24, 2018|page=114}}
}}
Writing for The Austin Chronicle, Rashied Gabriel thought that the album's production and Aceylone's "various styles" worked to complementary effect. He went on to label All Balls Don't Bounce "a sureshot record", and felt that it delivered "verbal calisthenics that astound with fresh insight as well as lyrical wizardry." Robert Christgau gave it a "neither" rating, indicating that an album "may impress once or twice with consistent craft or an arresting track or two. Then it won't."{{cite book|chapter=Aceyalone: All Balls Don't Bounce|chapter-url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_album.php?id=8730|accessdate=April 8, 2015|title=Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s|title-link=Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s|last=Christgau|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Christgau|publisher=St. Martin's Griffin|year=2000|isbn=0-312-24560-2}}{{cite book|chapter=Key to Icons|chapter-url=http://robertchristgau.com/xg/bk-cg90/grades-90s.php|accessdate=June 24, 2018|title=Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s|title-link=Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s|last=Christgau|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Christgau|publisher=St. Martin's Griffin|year=2000|isbn=0-312-24560-2}} The Village Voice noted that "the beats ... have that West Coast vibes-and-upright-bass feel, peppered with whistles and old-school drum machines, but they're stripped down to new specs: raw but not East Coast grimee, slinky but not Snoopish."{{cite news |last1=Frere-Jones |first1=Sasha |title=Aces wild — All Balls Don't Bounce by Aceyalone |work=The Village Voice |volume=40 |issue=44 |date=31 Oct 1995 |page=57}}
In a retrospective review, Steve Huey of AllMusic described Aceyalone as "one of the greatest lyricists the West Coast has ever produced, twisting his fluid rhymes around and off the beat with the improvisational assurance of Rakim." He also commented that "[the production] is solid if unspectacular, usually spare and jazzy, with lots of piano/keyboard samples and some fitting nods to the abstract side of hard bop."
Track listing
{{Track listing
| extra_column = Producer(s)
| title1 = All Balls
| extra1 = The Nonce
| length1 = 4:31
| title2 = Anywhere You Go
| extra2 = Punish
| length2 = 4:10
| title3 = Deep and Wide
| note3 = featuring Abstract Rude
| extra3 = Vic Hop
| length3 = 2:32
| title4 = Mr. Outsider
| extra4 = The Nonce
| length4 = 5:53
| title5 = Annalillia?
| extra5 = The Nonce
| length5 = 4:13
| title6 = Knownots
| note6 = featuring Abstract Rude and Mikah 9
| extra6 = Vic Hop
| length6 = 5:00
| title7 = Arhythamaticulas
| extra7 = Chillin Villain Empire
| length7 = 3:28
| title8 = The Greatest Show on Earth
| extra8 = Mumbles
| length8 = 4:47
| title9 = Mic Check
| extra9 = Vic Hop
| length9 = 4:23
| title10 = Call It Cali
| extra10 = Punish
| length10 = 0:54
| title11 = Headaches and Woes
| extra11 = Punish
| length11 = 3:57
| title12 = I Think
| extra12 = Aceyalone
| length12 = 1:18
| title13 = Makeba
| extra13 = Mumbles
| length13 = 5:20
| title14 = B-Boy Kingdom
| note14 = featuring Abstract Rude, Mikah 9, and P.E.A.C.E.
| extra14 = Fat Jack
| length14 = 5:37
| title15 = Keep It True
| note15 = featuring Abstract Rude and Change of Rhythm
| extra15 = Fat Jack
| length15 = 5:33
}}
{{Track listing
| headline = All Balls Don't Bounce: Revisited bonus disc
| extra_column = Producer(s)
| title1 = All Balls Intro
| extra1 = The Nonce
| length1 = 3:13
| title2 = Universal Soldier
| extra2 = Riddlore, NGA Fish, C.V.E.
| length2 = 1:02
| title3 = Headaches and Woes Intro
| extra3 = Aceyalone
| length3 = 0:38
| title4 = Headaches and Woes (Remix)
| extra4 = Fat Jack
| length4 = 5:56
| title5 = The Greatest Show on Earth (Remix)
| extra5 = Fat Jack
| length5 = 4:35
| title6 = The Greatest Show on Earth (Remix)
| extra6 = Bar 9
| length6 = 4:02
| title7 = Mic Check (Remix)
| extra7 = Kemo
| length7 = 4:46
| title8 = Show Your Right
| extra8 = Fat Jack
| length8 = 3:59
| title9 = The Nobodys
| extra9 = Fat Jack
| length9 = 3:42
| title10 = They Don't Know
| extra10 = Underground Railroad
| length10 = 4:15
| title11 = Feet Up on the Table
| note11 = featuring Riddlore, Vic Hop, Ellay Khule, NGA Fish, Mark the Murderah, and Abstract Rude
| extra11 = DJ Homicide
| length11 = 4:41
| title12 = Tweakendz
| extra12 = Vic Hop, Aceyalone
| length12 = 4:27
| title13 = I Dream
| extra13 = O-Roc, Aceyalone
| length13 = 5:37
| title14 = Believe in Your Self
| extra14 = Fat Jack
| length14 = 4:02
}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{Discogs master|19108|All Balls Don't Bounce}}
{{Aceyalone}}
{{Authority control}}