11. Miclord, FX, Tradition "Trilogy"

Right at the beginning the Alliance claims to have the total package: rhymes, ill beats and turntable cuts. FX also says that they are "killing all you crap ass, hating ass, local bitch ass motherfuckers". It would be too easy now to disagree or to demand that they back these claims up. Losing proportions comes with the job of being a rapper. And fair enough, the Alliance rhymes, and fair enough, over beats. But to tell you the truth, we hear plenty of cats do that better.

After the mentioned FX did the "Intro", Chemical Imbalance do "7:30" that is not the beginning hour for must see TV or something, but as Big L explains it: "if you 7:30, that means you crazy". This quote gets sliced up and "Trial By 12" is chopped up to make up the beat. Chopped up enough, but not enough to not make it easily recognizable. Lyrically this does little to amaze, with flows that sound cocky, that stumble slightly every line or the other, and the similes are on the level of "blow up like the Concorde" So we continue on to the FX track "Get Rolled Over", that he starts with more 'if you don't roll with us, you get rolled over' threats (like "I leave you deader than Big Pun"). The beat is built upon a weak drum and a repetitive electro static sound, with the cinematic effects are slightly able to give a certain appeal to this.

Things continue in the same vein with Koyotte's "N-E-Emcee". And maybe to say something nice: here the flow sounds less forced and the number of syllables in one line is usually about the same as in the next one. Now this delivery lets us expect that this cat had the time to grow it properly. The interlude "Basement Symphony" contains quite a cool beat, but unfortunately is too short. But there's no time to complain as the beat on "Heavy Ammunition" is actually even nicer. While somewhat repetitive and the scratching chorus not being done too good, the beat is still to like. Miclord, Tradition, FX and Big Wayne are boasting ridiculously though, like "me and the greatest emcee are identical". Mic Lord has a flow that has him only spit very short lines. That makes him stopping and going constantly what is not to his total benefit.

Now on "On Da Real", Karma Infinite, Koyotte and FX are once more sharing the mic, and funny enough, the whole crew seems to struggle from voices that don't make it any easier for them. The beat for "In This Game" then is straight up stupid. That constant fake piano key hitting is simply annoying. Miclord, Tradition and Koyotte can't save the track too, and so we rush further to check out the Koyotte solo track "R-U-Ready". The beat once more is too repetitive and pleases only with too few and short intervals of change. Koy' in the mean time does his braggadocios, that tries to be cleverly violent, but at the end is mostly violent. For some reasons the track then suddenly speeds up and we are speeding to the skip button. "Genitalia" then is courageously enough trying to do something different an it's succeeding, with it just allowing itself to go beyond the usual.

The strings on "Trilogy" are working again, but they are too far hidden in the back. Miclord, FX and Tradition are struggling to find something worthwhile to say, with FX finding a dope line, him going: "I'm off the wall like your ex-girlfriends pictures". And it's him who seems to be responsable for most of the good lines. Then we get "How It Goes" that with a better drum would have been cool. Koy' and Tradition are on this and Koy' sticks around for "In The Game (Remix)", that also brings FX back. Now the beat is still crap and so we rather check out "S.P.Ecial", that is another interlude and gets interesting once that guitar / bass sample comes on. "Genetic Strand" is also just slightly being held back by the drum, with that bleepy sound being cool. Tradition kicks his memoirs of a space character before he does "Onslaught" with FX. Once more the bleeping is cool, the bass is cleverly held in the back and the drum is not disturbing too much. Lyrically the same horn is blown into and the stumbling is still present as well, especially with the second cat on the mic. And so we finally check out Tradition's "Outro", that is rather too long for the few changes it makes. The keyboard sounds are also too blatant, but the track in total is okay.

So well, I guess there's not much need to say much more. Yes, there are a few things that get our approval, the cool line here and there, the few beats that are pretty nice. But in total, this needs a whole lot of work. With the number of releases allowing a very harsh selective crowd, this fails to attract the doubting.