Get To Know H.E.R.

Hits: Allison James (ft Slaine), When The Sun Goes Down (ft Saigon), The Truth (ft Supastition), That’s Me (ft Joell Ortiz), The Torch (ft King Magnetic, Reef The Lost Cauze), Speakeasy (ft Outerspace), Transition Of Power (ft M.O.P.), Find A Way (ft Lorrie Doriza)

Strikes: N/A

Balls: Evil Deeds (Demoz, Des Devious, Jus Allah), Independence Day (Block McCloud)

Stoupe The Enemy Of Mankind (or just Stoupe for short) is one half of the usual roster of underground hip hop group, Jedi Mind Tricks. Those that listen to Jedi Mind Tricks will acknowledge that Stoupe is an absolute monster behind the boards. I actually have a sinking suspicion that people only tolerate Jedi Mind Tricks because of Stoupe’s productions. I know that’s what it is for me. I’ve always felt that the group was actually holding Stoupe back and boxing him in to collaborating with a very narrow range of artists. Naturally, when news of a solo album reached the ears of the hip hop community, the community went wild.

I went into this album expecting sick beats and sick rhymes. The beats were pretty much guaranteed to be on point. It’s not the greatest material I’ve heard from Stoupe (with the exception of a couple of beats) but even an average Stoupe beat is good by normal standards. As far as the collaborators went, I was slightly disappointed that he didn’t reach too far outside of his comfort zone, since most of the guest rappers were Army Of The Pharoah rappers and affiliates. I mean, how dope would the Wu sound over some of this stuff? And where the hell was Canibus on this? Sigh, but I guess that’s just the hopeful fan in me speaking and I hope that rant didn’t turn you off to this album because the guests that are on this do their job (except fucking Jus Allah).

To my surprise, my favorite song on this wasn’t one with a rapper on it but the trip hoppy Find A Way. The beat on it was pretty different than what I’ve come to expect from Stoupe. Not much of that ominous sound that tends to dominate the majority of Stoupe beats. The piano driven beat blended perfectly with the vocals and provided a sound that hit me in a way I wasn’t expecting from this. I’m not sure how to put it in words. But I love this track.

My final opinion on this album is that it’s pretty good. It’s a little shorter than I would’ve liked (although with the name Decalogue, what did I expect) but I guess with that brevity came a conciseness that’s missing from most projects these days. I would recommend you listen to it and keep a look out for his rumored Trip Hop album to hit in the relatively near future.

Hits: Gazillion Ear, Ballskin, Yessir! (ft Raekwon), Absolutely, Rap Ambush, Lightworks, Batty Boyz, Cellz, Microwave Mayo, More Rhymin, That’s That

Strikes: Bumpy’s Message (ft Freddie Foxxx) (to have a track with Freddie Foxx just to have him talk? Horrible choice)

Balls: Supervillain Intro, Angelz (ft Tony Starks) (in all honesty, it’s pretty good…but the original was a masterpiece and I resent that he felt the need to change the track), Still Dope (ft Empress Sharhh), Supervillainz (ft Kurious, Slug, Mobonix), Thank Yah

After years of hiatus and losing the MF in his name, DOOM comes back to drop Born Like This on our asses. The album starts with the mandatory rap album intro and goes right into what we’ve come to expect from the man: incomprehensible yet dope rhymes over dope beats. As an added bonus, it seems that DOOM has improved his flow a bit since his last couple of albums, reducing what was always his biggest weakness. In fact, the only complaint that I have about this (other than the lack of the original Angelz!) is its brevity. I expected a lot more than 40 minutes from a 4 year hiatus, and some of the tracks felt as if they were incomplete. Some of the tracks also didn’t feature DOOM at all, but since Yessir! was so dope, I may have to forgive this.

Still, what a great 40 minutes this has been. I’ve heard a lot of people say that they were disappointed by this album, and I wonder if we were listening to the same album. Maybe it’s because I’ve been missing new DOOM in my life for a while now but I would rank this right next to Operation Doomsday, below only Vaudeville Villain and Madvillainy. As for the question of whether everyone should buy this or not is a bit of a dilemma. On one hand it’s always a plus to support good hip hop like this. However, I am against supporting douche’s and DOOM has been accused of various acts of douchebaggery over the years. Regardless of whether you decide to get this legally or not however, you should make it a point to listen to it sometime in the near future.

WTF Moment: Raekwon on Yessir!. All I can say is…holy shit! Dude kills it and I want Cuban Linx 2 even more now.

Hits: ABC’s (ft Chubb Rock), I Come Prepared, Bang Bang (ft Adam Levine), If Rap Gets Jealous, Wavin Flag, America (ft Mos Def, Chali 2na), Fire In Freetown, Take A Minute, People Like Me

Strikes:

Balls: T.I.A., Dreamer, Somalia, Fatima, 15 Minutes Away

There’s a lot moments in K’naan’s Troubadour that makes one forget that one is listening to a hip hop album. In fact, a lot of what makes this album work owes itself to the fact that it was able to blend the sound of multiple genres throughout. But, make no mistake, at it’s heart this is a hip hop album through and through.

With a distinct voice, the tendency to switch between singing and rapping (at times in the same song), and his emotional lyricism sprinkled with a bit of political charge makes K’naan inevitably sound a bit like a Canadian Mos Def. So it’s maybe not coincidence that track 9 features the Mighty Mos himself alongside Chali 2na (on a side note. Where the fuck is Chali 2na’s solo album at? Despite rumors that the album is coming along and that Rakim(!) is on it, I’m beginning to fear it’ll just become another one of those albums that will be released in the year 20never. End side note.). But the two emcees are distinct from each other and while Mos can shred K’naan to pieces lyrically, I tend to enjoy it more when K’naan sings anyways. He’s really not the most complex of rappers/lyricists in terms of technique, but he does have a way of bringing out emotion in every word he spits/sings.

Bottom line is if you feel the need to experience something a bit different, and maybe support our neighbors north of the border, give K’naan a chance. Like I said, there’s not gonna be too many moments where you’ll be rewinding your CD/mp3, trying to catch a sick line here and there, but I guarantee you’ll enjoy the listen. Sometimes I like my hip hop presented in a simple form without the need to dissect every line and K’naan is just the thing to satisfy that craving.

Hits: To Be Told, The Rules, Prepare For War, Spit, Goodbye, The Reason, I Warned You

Strikes: My Crew

Balls: So Cruel, Lady Sings The Blues, Lose Her

Saigon and the fairly overrated Statik Selektah team up to bring us Saigon’s first official album, All In A Day’s Work. Well, calling it an album seems to be a bit of a stretch as the whole thing clocks in at just over 30 minutes and 11 tracks. The whole premise behind this thing was that it was all recorded within the span of one day (hence the title). And you know what? It shows.

Listening to it, you can tell that the whole album has a rushed feeling to it and in fact the songs sound more like a collection of tracks than a cohesive bigger picture. The beats, provided entirely by Statik Selektah are entirely hit or miss and I wouldn’t be surprised if he just rummaged through a pile of unused material and sent it to Saigon to use. Saigon’s rhymes as well have a wild range on this album going from dope to average, sometimes within the same song. When beat and rhyme come together it creates pure fire but that really doesn’t happen too often on this.

Ultimately, the 24 hours of work they put into this resulted in a scattered body of work and leaves me feeling empty. Saigon has showed much more potential than this in the past and you should still have hope for The Greatest Story Never Told (if it’s released!) but as for this, feel free to skip it. Sagion, the next time you release an album, take your time. The whole recorded in a day gimmick may have impressed some, but in a year’s time, nobody’s going to remember that and all they’ll be left with is an average album from a rapper that should’ve given us more.

Hits: Shine All Day, (ft Q-Tip, Jumz, Kel Spencer) (borders on Ball), We Speak Hip Hop (ft Afasi, Kase O, Maccho, Abass, KRS-One), Bounce Back (ft Busta Rhymes and DJ Scratch), Tribute To The Breakdancer (ft Supernatural)

Strikes: Swagger (ft Red Café, Snoop Dogg, Lynda Carter), When I Get There (ft Big Daddy Kane), I Got Sumthin To Say (ft Lordikim, Jay-Flo, Almighty Thor), Can I Take You Higher (Mr. Cheeks, Grandmaster Caz, Tito), Unpredictable (ft Big Daddy Kane and Syndee), Those Chix (ft Byata, Princess Superstar, Hedonis Da Amazon, Syndee), Oh Man (ft Syndee and Natacha Atlas)

Balls: Welcome, Here Comes My DJ (ft DJ Kool and DJ Demo), What If (KRS One), Grown and Sexy (ft Mr Cheeks), Connection, Bronx Bombers (ft Almighty Thor, Lordikim, Mann Child), Zuka The Sound

I mean no disrespect to an absolute legend. But damn if this isn’t the most average release I’ve heard so far in the new year. I gotta get to work so I’ll make this as short as possible.

Grandmaster Flash is great as a DJ but when it comes to producing beats, most of these sound like your average joe schmo backdrops. Some, such as the one on When I Get There, are straight garbage. But as I always say, lyrics above production right? I mean, Grandmaster Flash can put together some alright beats but if they have some quality rhymes over them, the end result would’ve been fire, or at the very least, enjoyable. Unfortunately, the quality of emceeing on this album is wildly inconsistent and ranges from good to absolutely horrible. Even the veterans on the album sound as if they’re simply on the album out of some sort of obligation, since most of their rhymes come off as extremely run of the mill, especially by their standards. For example, Big Daddy Kane and Mr. Cheeks, two emcees who’ve proven their talent over and over again, spit some questionable material on each of the two songs they’re featured in.

The album however, isn’t without any redeeming qualities. As previously mentioned, some of the rapping is pretty good (ie. Busta Rhymes and Q-Tip’s verses), and the overall theme is presented fairly well. Of course the problem with the second reason is that these “lessons” on the culture were pretty basic in nature and I’m pretty damn sure that anybody who would be checking for a Grandmaster Flash album in the first place will know all of that already. Still, I gotta give props for trying, and besides, We Speak Hip Hop is probably one of the most interesting songs I’ve heard in a while.

I realize that today’s review seems rushed and unorganized, and that’s probably because I am rushed today. Just know that you really don’t need to check for this release. This could’ve been so much more, but as it is it won’t add anything to your hip hop life if you do listen and it won’t take anything away from it if you don’t.

I’ve come to realize that in the midst of reviewing so many full length albums, there is much quality music that gets lost simply because they’ve been released as 4-10 track EPs. No more of that. From now on, EPs will get their much deserved shine as well and I’ll try to backtrack to older EPs as well. Today’s however are both from 2009.

Hits: Real As Can Be, Philistine David, Little Rodney, Palm The Joker, Good Lord, Talkin My Shit, The Believers (ft Slug), Begin Here

Strikes: N/A

Balls: Baby Don’t Go

First up is The Truth Is Here by Brother Ali, which was released recently as a CD/DVD combo. With three great full length albums (1 arguably a modern classic) and an incredible EP in the form of Champion, Brother Ali has been steadily moving up on my list of favorite emcees. All I can say is this EP does not hinder that forward movement in any way. Each of the 9 tracks are laced with some great beats from Ant of Atmosphere and Ali absolutely destroys each track. A nice guest appearance from Slug doesn’t hurt things as well, and I would actually love to see a whole album full of collabo tracks between them. It’s not quite as classic as Champion was but it’s still great and you should by all means pick this one up.

Hits: Nouveau Depart, Escaping Arkham, Brasso, Slow Down Moses, The Picture of My Delorean Gray

Strikes: N/A

Balls: N/A

Second is The Winter’s End EP by rap duo Common Market. It seems that after dropping a good album last year, both RA Scion and Sabzi wasted no time messing around and continued to hone their respective crafts. Sabzi continued in moving away from the soulful horns and upbeat drum beats of their debut and opted to concentrate more on the ambient, dark but relaxing soundscapes he started to experiment with in Tobacco Road. RA Scion also shows improvements as an emcee, employing both his signature flow and more slower one when necessary and sometimes switching between the two in the same song. At 5 tracks totaling14:14, the EP makes for a quick but rewarding listen and is in my opinion much better than their Black Patch War EP. Hopefully this means that their next full length will be an absolute killer. Anyways, do yourself a favor and check this one out as well.

Hits: Now I Lay, Don’t Make Me, In My Sleep, Exxxes, Adrenaline, Angel In My Life, Pray For Me, Family Reunion (bonus remix) (ft Fabolous, Ransom and Hitchcock)

Strikes: The Future (ft The Game), Happy Holidays (ft Emmany)

Balls: If I Gotta Go, Blood On The Wall, I Couldn’t Help It, Do Tell

Going into 2009, this album was top 10 if not top 5 on my list of albums to look out for. And how the hell could it not have been? Even without releasing an album in the past couple of years, dude has been completely ripping the rap game apart. Starting from his first Mood Muzik mixtape, to his subsequent releases in the series, to the Halfway House EP, to his appearances with the Slaughterhouse supergroup, I’ve checked for every project he’s been involved in and have not been disappointed. So naturally, I looked for his sophomore release with a good amount of excitement and high expectations.

With all that said, by the end of this album, I was completely underwhelmed. There were a good number of moments in which you could feel Budden’s hunger and in those moments the album managed to shine. However, there were a surprising number of moments in which he sounded bored and as if rapping was the last thing on his mind. Not at all what I’d expected from the same rapper that gave us Mood Muzik 3. The bigger problem, however, is the production on the disc, which is handled entirely by relatively unknown producers. Mind you, I’m not knocking on unknown producers and some of my favorites currently would more or less fall into that category (Remot, Ravage, Afta-1 and Freddie Joachim). However, these producers provided extremely average beats that makes me wonder if Joe Budden may be another rapper infected with the Ras Kass syndrome.

As a whole though, the album isn’t entirely bad and mostly due to Budden’s rhymes, there are more tracks on here that I would listen to than tracks I would skip over. But that ratio is dangerously close and I know that Joe Budden has more potential than he’s shown on here. Check it out at least once, but if you’re more of a fan of hip hop in general, you would be better off buying a copy of Mood Muzik 3.5 and waiting for the opus magnum that he will one day undeniably drop.

WTF Moment: Nobody from Slaughterhouse was able to drop a guest verse on this? Really?!

Hits: Talk It Out (Nieve and Jean Curley), All I Want In This World (CL Smooth), Mountain Top (ft Aloe Blacc), Live Forever (ft Black Thought), So Fresh (ft Talib Kweli), Only One (ft Need Not Worry), The World Outside In (ft Othello), Cheers (ft Asheru), Food For Thoughts (ft OC), Yin Stacks (ft Rakaa Iriscience of Dilated Peoples), Velvet Ballads

Strikes: Bubbles (ft Jean Curley)

Balls: Nothin For Nothin (ft CL), Jag Jam Jazz

I’m not usually a fan of extended introductions to the artists in question. However, I’m fairly sure that the majority of you have never heard of the group so here it goes. Cradle Orchestra is a group from Japan that specializes in jazz tinted hip hop productions. They started off with two DJs but more recently they have recruited live instrumentation in the form of a bassist, a violinist, a flutist, and a pianist. Sounds good already doesn’t it?

It’s groups like Cradle Orchestra that really helps argue against the naysayers that say hip hop shouldn’t be characterized as music. Their production, aided by the addition of live instruments, goes from being simply touched by jazz tones to being a full blown sonic experience. Listening to their beats, you really do get the sense that these guys treat each beat as its own musical composition and that they believe the instrumental should be more than background noise for rappers to rhyme over. The numerous sounds on the production is able to mesh together to provide cohesive melodies to bug out over. And fortunately for us, Cradle Orchestra brought together a great group of emcees to do justice to their music. Hearing CL Smooth and Talib, in particular, over production like this was really a treat.

When it comes down to it, all I wanted to say is this: Velvet Ballads is the first album of 2009 that I’ve truly enjoyed through and through and will feel the urge to listen to again as the year goes on. Pick it up and give it a try.

Hits: Takeover, Antenna, Caged Bird Pt 1 (ft Brother Ali), Caged Bird Pt 2, Radio, Coastin (ft K Flay), Bring In The Light, Legacy (Ty and Jennifer Johns)

Strikes: Juicy Juice

Balls: The Taking (Intro), Geek To The Beat, DJDJ, Gumbo, Country Baked Yams (ft Devin The Dude), Peppermint Patty

To me, Zion I has always been a reminder that underground doesn’t isn’t always a sureproof seal of great hip hop. Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed listening Mind Over Matter and Heroes in the City of Dope so it’s not like I’m overlooking the fact that the group has made good music in the past. It’s just that more often than not, their releases have been pretty mediocre at best.

When all is said and done, The Takeover falls somewhere in the middle of their discography as far as quality goes. The production, handled by AmpLive as always is pretty consistent throughout and in particular, the beats on Coastin and Antenna had me buggin out. For the most part the soundscapes provided on the album provides a great backdrop for Zumbi to rap over. However, there were also moments when the production noticeably took a turn for the worse, such as on DJDJ, which admittedly sounded like a Universal Mind Control outtake. Still, production-wise at least, the album came out on top.

The main problem with the album and with most Zion I albums in general is the MC of the duo, Zumbi. Now, this is only my opinion, but Zumbi is one of the most mediocre emcees as far as the (relatively) well known underground scene of hip hop goes. He’s never spit anything that has made me cringe and to the man’s credit, he says a lot of worthwhile things, but on the flipside nothing he’s said has ever made me rewind and listen to that shit 20x over again just to make sure dude said what I thought he said. His technical skill is just not there. I’m the type of guy that will be much quicker to enjoy a song with a mediocre beat but mind boggling rhymes than a song with a kick ass beat but mediocre rhymes. With that in mind, you can see why I didn’t think much of this offering from the duo. Zumbi’s deficiency on the mic is made glaringly obvious on the track Caged Bird Pt 1, in which Brother Ali completely steals the song from him.

Like I said, in the end, what you’re left with is a decent hip hop album. If Zion I has always been your thing, than by all means pick it up. If not, I don’t think it’s worth your time to really even hunt down the hits. There’ll be more than enough good albums in the months to come. Hold out til then.

Hits: Die In Your Lap, Choose, Merciless (Interlude), Mercy, Ghetto World, Hands High, What’s Wrong, Guf 2, Everything, Reborn (Dana)

Strikes: Shame

Balls: Don’t Be Afraid (Intro), Hello World (Interlude), Our Song (Interlude)

Two reviews back to back. Signs of things to come I would say. Man, the low expectations I have for myself…

Anyways, today’s review is also of an album that dropped this past Tuesday, Cesar Comanche’s Die In Your Lap. If I am to believe the press release for this album, this is his 6th album to date (although I only know of 3 before this one). I won’t say that I’m a fan of the man as I don’t actively check for his new releases religiously as I would for, let’s say Mos Def or Masta Ace. However, I’ve enjoyed the albums I’ve heard from him in the past, especially Squirrel and the Aces, and as such I had hopes for this album going in.

For the most part, I think Die In Your Lap was able to live up to my expectations. It was a consistent listen straight through and one or two of the songs in here are really quite good. The lion’s share of the production is handled by 9th Wonder and Cesar Comanche himself and the only misstep beatwise was on the Khrysis produced Shame. This was great news for the rapper because as it turns out, the production on this album was used as more than just a beat to rhyme to. Instead of simply being background noise, the beats were very well integrated into the songs themselves and Cesar Comanche took great care to make his songs whole musical pieces. When this worked, it worked very well such as on the song Ghetto World. It also worked well on the Merciless interlude, which is probably the only interlude that has ever made the hits list. The way in which the instrumental, which is good in itself, is used to lead into Mercy, which featues a tweaked version of the interlude’s beat, is simply something that needs to be heard.

Now everyone knows that good beats mean next to shit on a rap album (different story if this was an instrumental) if they aren’t accompanied by solid rapping. Fortunately for us Cesar Comanche, while no lyrical monster, is still more than proficient to hold an audience through 15 tracks. Good thing too, since there are no guest features to be found on this whole thing. If Comanche was a slouch on the mic, this album would’ve been a chore to listen to but in this case the lack of guest artists contributes nicely to a consistent sound and quality.

Fans of the Justus League, do yourself a favor and pick up this album. Hip hop fans who have never heard of the man before, feel free to take a risk and give the rapper a chance (and some money?). Fans of Lil Wayne, pick this album up and then also proceed to buy Midnight Marauders, Delron 3030, Liquid Swords, Illmatic, and Resurrection (I kid the Wayne stans!!! Although if anyone hasn’t heard those albums yet, they really should pick them up). In all seriousness, while this album will not be top 10 end of the year material (unless 4th quarter 09 is particularly horrible for hip hop), it’s still a very good listen and is a great album for the first quarter of the new year.

The WTF Moment: Merciless to Mercy. I don’t know. For one reason or another, I love it.