Dying in Stereo is the second release by New York City-based alternative hip hop group Northern State. It was first released on June 3, 2002, on Startime International, and then re-released in May 2003 by Columbia Records.[1] It has been described variously as an EP and a "mini-album". Nevertheless, it is usually described as their official debut album, since their only previous release (Hip Hop You Haven't Heard) was a self-released four-song demo. This led PopMatters to describe it as a "litmus test" that will determine "what will happen to white, female, feminist rappers, who aren’t pencil-thin or supermodel pretty."[2]
The album received generally favorable reviews from critics.[3] The exceptions to this trend included Pitchfork Media, which gave it a scathing review in which the reviewer, Michael Idov, described the album as "the most heinous hip-hop release since MC Skat Kat went solo",[4] and Drowned in Sound, which described Northern State as "a pointless hybrid of the Beastie Boys and *N-tyce (from the female wing of the Wu)."[5] Many other critics also compared Dying in Stereo's music to that of the Beastie Boys.[6]
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