Get To Know H.E.R.

Edit : What the hell…the batman picture changes every freaking time I log back on. Changed my password so hopefully that fixed it.

Today’s album didn’t actually come out this week, but I haven’t been able to listen to it until now. Kong, or Kongcrete (not to be confused with the rock group of the same name) is a member of the Monsta Island Czars, which is a group of emcees who must watch way too many Japanese kaiju movies. Truthfully, I haven’t followed them too much aside from the MF Doom’s King Geedorah album and Megalon’s A Penny For Your Thoughts. However, what I’ve heard from those two albums were superb and after reading a blurb about Kong in hiphopdx a while back, I decided that I had to review this album. Like I said, M.I.C. is not a group that I usually listen to, so if today’s review seems a bit less detailed than usual, apologies in advance, come back tomorrow for a more detailed one.

The Good:

3.Babylon (ft Megalon, Spiega, and 5th Element) - The Mission Impossible sample here works surprisingly well. The one thing I hate about listening to a crew that I haven’t had much experience listening to is that I have almost no idea who’s who.

4. Broken Safety (Spiega and Ikon) - Monsta Island is a group that is gonna be an acquired taste. They have a very no nonsense, rhyme centered lyrical approach and that actually may turn a lot of people off in today’s world.

6. It’s Official (ft MF Grimm, Gabarah, Spiega, Ikon, Monster X) - I was about to designate this track to the bad section because the first minute and a half was just a bunch of hard to hear rhyming over no beat. Then the beat kicked in and the rest of the track kicked my ass soundly for thinking about such a thing.

7. Shackles Off (ft Nhguav Ratkiv and Spiega)

8. Who - Finally a track with Kong by himself. Dude shows that he’s a pretty damn capable emcee and that he doesn’t need all of his crew on a track to make it enjoyable.

9. Lifted (ft Gabarah and Monsta)

12. What Had Happened Was

13. Ultimate Sacrifice - The Kong solo tracks are way too short. All great tracks, but I do wish they were longer.

15. War (ft 5th Element and Spiega) - Spiega seems to be way too average of an emcee to be featured as much as he is. However, the tracks do work, so I guess they knew what they were doing.

16. Hated (ft Gabarah, Monsta X, and Ravage)

17. Black Blood (ft 5th Element)

The Solid:

1. Intro - Features samples from the movies. If you have to ask which movies, well….

2. Pure Poetry (ft Kandee and Ikon) - Doesn’t feature Kong on the track but it’s decent. Wouldn’t listen twice though.

5. Weasel (ft Spiega) - Their beats are also a bit unorthodox, which may make it even harder for the average listener to get into.

11. Endless Nights (ft Gabarah, Monsta X and Ikon) - Eh, Monsta Island doing tracks for the ladies is just alright at best.

14. Slumz Skit

18. Red Tears (ft Spiega and Delilah) - The lyrics are all on point, but the song is just so boring at some points.

The Bad:

10. Brown Eyes Skit

Final Score: 8.5
Kong and the rest of the Monsta Island Czars all seem to suffer from Talib Kweli syndrome, in that they try to fit way to many syllables into a bar and it comes off as making for an awkward flow at times. However, like Talib, they’re saved by the quality of the lyrics they’re trying to jam pack into that bar. As such, the album, while pretty great in my eyes, may not be taken so easily by the casual listener. If you don’t really consider hip hop your genre of choice but something you listen to on the side, you may or may not like it. It’s just a different animal than what you’re used to and if you think you’ll be fine with that, go right ahead. If you’re a hip hop fanatic, give it a chance, you’ll probably dig it. It’s raw and different from most of today’s material. O and.

See it. Even though Batman’s dark, deep voice is still ridiculously corny, it’s a great freaking movie. Heath Ledger’s (RIP) Joker will most definitely go down in the history of excellent movie villains. Two Face not so much, but the Joker is gonna give Darth Vader, Hannibal Lecter, the Wicked Witch of the West, Scar and the like a good run for their money.

And if you consider my mentioning Two Face’s appearance in this movie as a spoiler, you really gotta catch up on your comics. Harvey Dent = 2 Face = Basic comic knowledge. Simple as that.