Slaine-A World With No Skies 2.0 Review

I must say that before this album I had never heard Slaine before. Which I suppose is a good thing, as therefore I had no biases against or for him while writing this review. Anyway, let’s get down to the actual album. After the controversy of A World With No Skies, the first version. Slaine decided to release a new album with the same name, and many of the same songs. So if you’ve heard A World With No Skies then there’s no point in getting 2.0. But if not, read on….

Black Horses: The beat is simple, yet it suits the atmosphere of the song. Lyrically it was very good. Overall it was a good start to the album. 8.5/10

Voices of Apocalypse: I really liked this beat. In fact I really liked this whole song. I think it was the hook the got me stuck to it. Anyway it may not have been the most lyrical song on the album, but there was something about it that attracted me to it. 9.5/10

99 Bottles: This beat made me of something that Grieves would rap over. The hook was a good play on the “99 bottles of beer on the wall” tune, but it was a bit corny. Yet the rest of song was lyrically good. 7.5/10

When I Shoot You: Another good beat. Yet again it had some good lyrics, but what was most notable about this track was that it was a very good story telling song. 8.5/10

Zombie (ft Son of Skam):  This was probably one of worst songs on the album. Son of Skam is probably the least lyrical person to feature on this album. Slaine doesn’t do badly but Son of Skam ruined it completely. He also tried to put in some rock and that didn’t work out at all. 6/10

Can’t Go Home: A huge improvement from the previous song. The beat is pretty simple but is really good. Slaine is once more lyrical and he does a good job on the hook. 8.5/10

You: The beat was ok, and the hook wasn’t great. In the end it was okay. Definitely not one of his best songs, even though he stays up at his usual standard lyrically. 7.5/10

Jumpin’ Out The Window (ft Cyrus Deshield & Edo G): This song was a top 4 of the album. The beat was simple but still good, I loved the hook, Slaine does what he does and Cyrus is good as well, as I thought he would be, being the most featured person on the album.9/10

Crazy (ft B Real & Jaysaun): An Immortal Technique sounding beat, with some good lyrics. This song actually sorta reminded me of Cyprus Hill (makes sense since B Real was on it). Although the chorus was corny. Jaysaun’s  verse wasn’t too bad, although I didn’t really like B Real’s. 7.5/10

I Ain’t Done: This beat had that “horror” sound to it, without overdoing it. This was another song that some people might look over, but I really liked it. And the hook,  was also enjoyable for me. And lyrics are also good. The effects that were put on the vocals I thought suited the song. And the outro of the song was good as well. 9/10

The Boulevard (ft Blacastan, Sean P. & Ill Bill): A pretty good beat, lyrics weren’t bad. The features all do well too. The song was good but nothing brilliant, it didn’t have anything standing out.  8/10

Broken (ft V Knuckles & Cyrus Deshield): A good beat. The hook was good to.  quite well but not nearly as well as Slaine, who is very good on this track, lyrically and flow-wise. 8.5/10

Ghosts: Another very good song, very good beat. Not much I can say about this track besides the fact that I liked it a lot. The hook was good, so were the lyrics, flow and concept. 9/10

Where My Heart Is (ft Cyrus Deshield):  I liked the hook. And Slaine didn’t disappoint once again. The singing was good too. 8.5/10

Borrowed Time (ft Checkmark & Lu Balz): So far this and 99 Bottles are the only 2 songs on the albums with music videos, so they will probably be the only singles for the album. Although I really liked the hook and lyrics on this song, I thought the beat wasn’t great. With the name Lu Balz, I expected him to suck, but he proved me wrong and did very well. With a different beat, this could have been a top 2 song of the album. 8.5/10

The Last Song (ft Everlast): The beat wasn’t  bad. And as almost every other song  on this album, it was good lyrically. Although I didn’t really like Everlast on the hook, and I would have much prefer him rapping on one of the verses than “singing” the hook. 8/10

Overall: 8.5/10

Certainly worth checking out (unless you’ve heard the first version of course). A very solid performance from Slaine, and if I was just rating him and not the beats or features, he would probably get 9.5/10. Go check it out and who knows, it might even make your top 10 albums of the year.

Music videos can be found here 99 bottles and Borrowed Time

By *Aboveground*

Are There any Good Juggalo Rappers?

The other day I was going through all the different genres of my iTunes and I realised I didn’t have much Horrorcore, besides Esham and Brotha Lynch Hung. So I went out on a mission to find some new artists. Not surprisingly, the most common rappers involved in Horrorcore are Juggalos. But grown men with painted faces obviously aren’t scary at all. I’m much more horrified by Soulja Boy and Gucci Mane songs than the looks of these guys. But I still wondered “are there any good juggalo rappers?” I already knew that ICP completely suck, so I had to find some other guys to give a listen to. This is who I ended up finding:

Twiztid

Made up of Jamie Madrox and Monoxide. They are signed to Psychopathic Records and are heavily associated with ICP. Now before you jump to any conclusions, you should at least give them a chance. I listened to 5 of their songs, which I’ll review for you.

1. Afraid Of Me: The beat isn’t too bad. Lyrically I actually thought it was pretty good. Not brilliant but better than I expected. The hook is slightly cheesy and I doubt that “the world is afraid of” never the less, 7/10

2. Buckets Of Blood: The beat has that sorta “horrorcore” sound, which suits the song. Although they rap in an accent that is just annoying. And the hook just annoyed me. Lyrically it was also worse that Afraid of Me. The bridge wasn’t good either. The beat is the only thing that I believe “saves” the song, 5.5/10

3. Circles: If you don’t like rock, don’t listen to this song. It’s just a rock song, with rather poor singing. There was only one verse that was rapping, and it reminded me of Limp Bizkit. So I suppose if you enjoy them, you might enjoy this. If not, it’s not worth your while. 4/10

4. Raw Deal: The beat sounds like it could have been made by Scott Storch. The subject matter wasn’t suited for my liking. “Imma J, U, double G, A, L, O” is not exactly wonderfully lyrical. The verses were a little better and a slight improvement compared to the previous songs. 6/10.

5. Story Of Our Lives: For me I really liked this beat. It had that strange, wacky, yet good sound to it. The lyrics weren’t too bad. The hook was ok. In the end it pretty average. This is rather what I expected from them before I started listening. 6/10

Overall: 6/10. Not as good as let’s say Esham or Brotha Lynch Hung, but some songs were okay. Definitely give a listen to Afraid of Me, Raw Deal and Story of Our Lives before making your own decision on them.

Dark Lotus

Five members make up Dark Lotus, although in total there have been 7. Past members include Anybody Killa & Marz. The 5 current members are: Violent J (of ICP), Shaggy 2 Dope (of ICP)…Ok so at first glance this looks bad, but I was hoping that the other 3 members (Blaze Ya Dead Homie and the two members of Twiztid, Jamie Madrox & Monoxide) could maybe combine to make a super-group of sorts, but that wasn’t exactly what happened… I only gave a listen to four of their songs, but I think that’s enough to give me an idea of what they’re like. Here the tracks are:

1. During An Eclipse: Okay-ish beat. The backing vocals “du du du du” lol… kinda suck and annoy me. Lyrically it was not awful, but not great either. The hook was irritating as well. Better than ICP though I guess… 5/10

2. Hatchet House: This beat reminds me of Limp Bizkit. Except for the hook, which is like a Christmas jingle. The lyrics are okay but subject matter is just sick…. 5/10

3. Hell House: The yelling in the background of the beat just ruins it. All of the rappers have done some weird thing to make their voices sound deeper, which was both annoying and messed up their flow. My least favourite of the four tracks. 3/10

4. Pass The Axe:  I actually found the hook to be catchy, it was also much better lyrically and flow-wise than all of the other songs. The beat was good-ish too. 6/10

Overall: 5/10 better than ICP alone, but definitely not great. Pass The Axe was their only relatively good song.

So in closing we get back to the question “Are there any good juggalo rappers?” And I’d have to say that unless there’s some juggalo out there I’ve never heard of and is really lyrical, it’s a no. But are there any juggalo rappers, better than ICP? Yes indeed….

By *Aboveground*

Soul Khan-Aknowledgement

I think when all is said and done, 2011 will go down as the year of the white rapper. Grieves, Slug, Mad Child and Mac Lethal all dropped their best projects this year; Esoteric, D-Sisive, Copywrite, Beastie Boys and Kno all offered up solid joints as well. Throw in Sadistik's two expected projects and R.A.'s double album, and Caucasians seem to be doing superb this year. However, the white rapper of the year may not be any of the MCs listed above; Soul Khan would be my pick in that category. As an MC in hip hop's most exciting collective (Brown Bag All-Stars), Khan already has one of the best mixtapes on the year to his name; on Acknowledgement he drops not only the best EP on the year, but possibly of all time.
Production-wise, this album is pretty much flawless. Even though this is DJ Element's debut, it's pretty hard to tell from the masterful ways he mixes horns, sped-up jazz samples, and hard drum kicks to create an upbeat sound not unlike Kanye on Be or 'Get By'. However, the most important thing he accomplishes is being interesting without taking attention away from Soul Khan's lyrics, which deserve every neuron of brain activity to appreciate.
Khan's lyrical preference here is not to go for originality, but rather to preach the same messages 'conscious' hip hop has been spreading for years, only more interestingly. Just as Talib Kweli's appeal comes not from his individuality of message, but rather from his lyrical prowess and innovative ways of stringing words together, so too does Khan prefer to showcase a dope rhyme scheme and creative lyricism than go for unorthodoxy.
And when it comes down to rhyme schemes, almost no one can touch Brown Bag's best:

I've been in that tunnel where the lights stop

Stomach in a tight knot

Wondering if got a second chance

I bit the bullet like i'm Taimak

So when they put me in a pine box

They can say i was a better man

 Usually when a battle MC as good as Soul Khan puts out a record, it's the same sort of punchline-heavy stuff that got him recognition in the first place (NoCanDo, I'm looking right at you). Here, however, Khan goes the route of Esoteric and reinvents himself as a storyteller rather than a battler. Which is totally great.
Really, the only flaw here is length (comes in at under 16 minutes). However, I'll take 6 amazing tracks over 15 good ones any day, so this album is still a classic, and would still make my Top 5 on the year right now.
Rating: 10/10
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By Crakpot
http://crakpothiphop.blogspot.com/

Dr. Lecter-Action Bronson

I'll be the first to admit that I'm a little late to the Action Bronson bandwagon. In fact, the first time I heard him was on Legendary Weapons a couple weeks ago, and I have yet to check out his mixtape or other album. The review that follows is simply my thoughts on him from this album alone, free of external bias. Which is probably the right way to write a review anyway.
The first thing everybody says when Bronson's name is brought up is: Oh, he's that Ghostface biter. Which brings up the subtle question, What is the difference between biting and homage? Elzhi very clearly and deliberately changed his rhyme schemes to fit Nas's when he recorded Elmatic (play The Breakfast Club and Elmatic back to back if you don't believe me), but this wasn't seen as biting because the album was a deliberate homage. On the flip side, one of the largest arguments against Jay-Z's place as a great rapper is the allegations that he bit many lines from Biggie and others (Cam'ron's epic diss "Swagga Jacka" is a must-hear). These lines may be defended as homage, but the fact that Jay often just uses them without adding additional interpretation is troubling.
I'd place Action Bronson somewhere in the middle, equivalent to the place Eminem found himself in 1996, when critics accused him of sounding like AZ. On the one hand, Bronson's voice, flow, and rhyme scheme sound eerily like Ghost's; on the other, it's clear that, although he's flattered by the comparisons, these similarities are unintentional. Unlike both Elzhi or Sean Carter, he doesn't repeat lines; what he spits is fully of his own unique creation. In my humble opinion, the coincidence can only help him going forward; Ghostface's myriad fans may soon become Bronson's as well. Additionally, his voice and rhyme scheme are odd in comparison to most other rappers, so the fact that there's been an artist with the same stylings whose gained mainstream success might open the door for Bronson a little more. But enough with the hypotheticals; let's talk about the music.
The production on the title track 'Moonstruck' is handled by the previously-unknown Tommy as, who also produces the rest of the album, and it's very clear from the get-go that his stylings match Bronson's flow perfectly. A simple jazz-synth loop with one of my favorite hooks of the year manage to produce a sound that is grimy, dark, and just a little Wu (That may hurt the case against Ghostface comparisons, although the most Wu-esque album by a non-Wu member has to go to General Monks' Each Step Becomes Elevated). The rest of the album's beats are just as dope, and perhaps Mas's crowning achievement is that Bronson's voice is never overpowered nor overpowering; he keeps the beat interesting yet simple enough to highlight the emcee over it.
Bronson keeps up his end of the deal, too. On my first couple listens I didn't pay much, if any, attention to subject matter, but still found myself remarking over the number of food references. By talking about something close to home, Action Bronson makes his lyrics unique and personal, yet the constant, seemingly nonsensical allusions ("Crack the pepper over thin crust that's handmade") call to mind, you guessed it, Ghostface. Still, from a technical aspect his rapping is top-notch, and he maintains that standard over the entire album.
The only place I can criticize Dr. Lecter is in its terrible features. It's for good reason you've never heard of Meyhem Lauren and Shaz Illyork; they're boring, predictable mediocre rappers who have no business being on tracks with Bronson or Mas. Still, the eleven solo tracks are among the most enjoyable on the year, and this album falls squarely into my Top 10 of 2011.
Rating: 9/10
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By Crakpot
http://crakpothiphop.blogspot.com/

Vakill-Armor of God

It's been a long time -- I shouldn't have left you... without a fly rec to step to. (I see you're hyper as a heart attack -- nobody's smiling). But I've been sifting through some decidedly meh albums (Moruf's Garden State of Mind, to name one) looking for a juicy review that just wouldn't come. So I decided: You know what? Fuck it. I'll review the next album I download. And when crunch time came, and the all-important decision of whether to DL Armor of God or Legendary Weapons first came up, the coin flip decided against the latter. And here we are.
But as I am cursed with an awful roundabout writing style, this review will be about more than Vakill's latest work; I am attempting to tackle the whole question of why people dislike mainstream hip hop. And while this is a question that many writers more knowledgeable than I have failed in tackling, I hope that if I can't hit the nail on the head, I can at least drive it a little further into the wood. Let's roll.
We all know that mainstream taste is fickle. (Any doubters can simply look at the artists we knew were bound for success in 2008; XXL Freshmen that year included Mickey Factz and Ace Hood.) In seemingly an instant, public opinion can shift between wanting soft ballads to wanting club hits and back again. So then it would make sense that the artists best primed for success could change with the tide; taking a look at Drake's hits, we see romantic ballad ('Best I Ever Had'), posse cut ('Forever') and club banger ('Fancy'). But remove yourself from the mainstream circle and suddenly no one likes Drake anymore. Why?
The answer to that question is that fans of underground hip hop are far less fickle, and more likely to support an artist who does not change his style. The best example of this rift can be found in the hip hop duo Bad Meets Evil. On tracks like 'Renegade' and 'Bad Meets Evil', Eminem and Royce exchanged over-the-top, faux-sadistic punchlines and appeared to be entirely in sync. Then, off of the success of The Slim Shady LP, Eminem blossomed into a superstar and his buddy Royce was left in the dust. Eminem went through all sorts of phases: The hyper-emotional train wreck of The Marshall Mathers LP, the winking-at-inappropriate-without-crossing-boundaries pop star of The Eminem Show, and the hopped-up-on-NyQuil hospital patient of Relapse. Royce, on the other hand, basically stayed the same. Through Death Is Certain, Street Hop, and the Slaughterhouse albums, he's basically remained the same battling punchline rapper of 1998. And while Eminem has been a megastar in the mainstream spotlight, he's largely hated in the underground community; Royce da 5'9" is pretty much universally respected by hip hop heads.
So where is this going, and how does this connect to Vakill? Why have I wasted 4 paragraphs without so much as a lick of useful information? Be patient, padawan. The answer to those rhetorical questions is on the way.
I guess my point is one I have made before, in the context of Lil B's album: Good music comes from truth. Which is why I'll always enjoy Styles P, Fat Joe, early 50 Cent, and yes, Waka Flocka Flame more than artists like Drake or Wale. The former have found a niche that works for them and can consistently make music that sounds truthful; the latter insist on trying to switch up their styles in an attempt to please everyone (being hood yet conscious) and end up sounding corny and fake.
Okay, point made. How does this relate to Armor of God? I thought you'd never ask. The reason I'm telling you all this is because Vakill on here seems like the perfect embodiment of that "I can't do everything, so I might as well stick to what I know" kind of attitude, which makes the album amazing. Here's some bars from the title track which sum up the point I've been trying to make in the last several paragraphs:

Give a fuck if fans okayed it; all I got is my balls and my word
If the streets hold me to my word, we already know where your hands located
Your fears confirming my thesis
The time fabrics in permanent creases
Pressing the luck you weigh, when bucks spray, you lay
Uckfay ouyay, want some positive shit? Motherfucker play Lupe

Armor Of God is wicked cohesive in that aspect; the songs are for the most part either street ballads, or punchline-heavy battle raps, or both. The only places where 'kill falters are when he tries to take things above and beyond, on the passable political effort 'A Lynched Legacy' and the groan-inducing force that is 'Bi-Polar.' Still, those don't come until the very end, so for 13 songs Vakill is his usual hustling self. Which, given his old-school skills and ear for dope lines (“An animal, on his corporate grizzy, spit divine as Corpus Christi, flowing hellfire until your corpse is crispy"), is more than enough, especially considering the production. You know what? (What?) The production deserves its own paragraph.
Panik, who produced 8 of the 16 tracks on here, is simply out of this world, crafting beats that are multi-layered without being flashy or overpowering, and allow Vakill to perfectly display his lyrical talent. In fact, I'll even go so far as to name his production the best beats of the year; I really need to check out the Molemen's solo joints. Maybe I'll check out Ritual Of The... (featuring Aesop Rock, Slug, and MF DOOM), and then, I don't know, write a review or something.
Final Rating: 9/10
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By Crakpot
http://crakpothiphop.blogspot.com/

Grieves-Together/Apart

Grieves - Together/Apart
Most of the time, the first thing I notice about a rapper is their rhyme scheme. I'd even go so far as to say that it is the single most important thing about lyricism, and those artists that do go above and beyond in that aspect (MF DOOM, Tonedeff, Sadistik, Gift of Gab, Earl, Big Pun, etc.) make up almost all of my GOAT list. However, there are some artists that can get away with a shoddy rhyme scheme on the grounds of strong storytelling and emotion. And I'm happy to say Grieves fits right in with this category.
Many people are quick to label Grieves as emo-rap, but I, a proud resistor of labels, prefer to group him into whatever category you'd stick late-Atmosphere into. Indeed, at his best, Grieves sounds a lot like Slug in that he's more interested in putting together concepts and stories than having consistent rhyme patterns. Something he also does very well is something I'd previously only seen Tonedeff accomplish; he basically sticks several metaphors end-to-end and runs through them to produce a larger theme.
Really, my only complaint about Grieves here is that sometimes he tries to bring his production to the forefront, instead of letting it slip into the background where it belongs. Still, most of the time it fits his style of writing beautifully, although I would love to see him team up with Ant or Kid Called Computer to see what they could do.
In conclusion, you should go out and buy/download/steal this album as soon as possible, especially if you're a fan of The Family Sign. It's a strong contender for album of the year, and a more-than-worthy successor to 88 Keys.
Final Rating: 9.5/10
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By Crakpot
http://crakpothiphop.blogspot.com/

What This Blog ls About

A few members of Yahoo Answers will be posting reviews on different albums. A new album should be up around once a week. Most albums are new rap releases, but personal requests can be done...