producers: q-unique, psycho les, arsonists, dj doom

guests: kinetic energy

You must have heard of the departure of two of the original five Arsonists members. But this album doesn't talk about it, apart from the somewhat subtle connection one can draw from the title of the album "Date Of Birth", and the track of the same name, that is using real life birth terminology to lead into the album, commenting: "life begins now". Already moving on to burn down the competition, "Stay Lo" is asking everyone that can't bring it, to keep away from the mic, with Q-Unique spitting: "I wouldn't resort to, but since you spit I had to abort you / tall nigga too short / you slash ya vocals, stop ya raps from being spoken / crush ya knuckles, leaving ya mic grabbin' hand broken". The beat is capturing the same eagerness, while the beat for "We Be About" can hardly capture anything but our disinterest in its fake piano. The cut is produced by Q-Unique, who handles that part of the album on all, but two tracks, and we probably shouldn't say already, but for a big part, he's coming with struggling beats.

But not on "What You Want?", that actually has to be the nicest one on the whole album. And Swel and Q are taking care of this track by themselves, handing the mic back and forth, before after a chorus like break, they are each spitting a longer verse. Q-Unique is then going for dolo, with him being the sole cat rhyming on "Language Arts", where he is mixing language with martial arts and practices both with skill, to have all contestants step away from the ring, as he's "like Freddie Foxxx possessed by the dragon... y'all wont' fight me". On "Respect The Unexpected", Q and Jise spit some battling verses over a rather calm track, that has to catch up with the rapid flow. One of the two non Q-Unique produced tracks is then coming on next, with Psycho Les of the Beatnuts being responsible for "Self-Righteous Spics (Anthem)" and we have to hold him responsible for this, as it's rather weak. Lyrically the three Arsonists are proving how much of a team they are with them passing on the mic amongst each other quicker than Starbucks open another shop. And the Arsonists are coming up with clever punchlines like Q spitting "no question like, like... The Roots without they drummer".

Things get more serious on "His Hate, Her Love", where the topic is domestic turbulence. Swel Boogie is somewhat trying to rhyme in an Eminem flow, however, the lyrics are still much better, and handled with the necessary care, than the again hard to appeal beat. Speaking of beats: we are happy with the one on "Burn It Out", however, that's not necessarily a sign of loosing our choosiness, as this is actually cool. It has a party vibe, a live performance vibe (what fits well with the lyrics), and so it gets our heads nodding, if not even our bones shaking. On "Whatever, Whenever", the Arsonists are laying out their case of how crap their opposite is. Further showing skills, on "Bleep", the rhymes are done with every word that's deserving such, being exchanged with a said bleep. However, this makes a political stance against the double standards, and the according to it phoniness, if not dangers, when it comes to censorship. We are then returning to braggadocios contents on "Wordplay", that again is featuring an okay, including rolling piano, beat.

The second beat not done by Q-Unique, or better, not solely done by him is "Alive", that's done by the whole Arsonists and DJ Doom. The strings on here are adding a lot of emotion, that is backed by the words, that are a stance for self pride, allowing themselves the position, and not demanding anything they don't deserve. Jise One is then doing a track himself, about himself with "Epitaph", although he speaks of Jise in third person. And the only guest shows up on "Space Junk", where Kinetic Energy is adding battling words, while Jise is saying "I bleed smoke through my nostril / rugged apostle, make it impossible for you to return / rhymes are obstacles, I piss icicles / sub-zero blood in my veins, raising caine/ sprinkled with novocaine, heart aches and pains". The beat is another one of the good ones, what can't be said about the one on "Millionaire", that however, is very dope due to the lyrics, as Jise, Q and Swel play out their own version of 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire', and the way they embed all the questions, and all the life lines, even mixing in some 'message from our sponsors', still keeping everything in flow, and keeping everything tight.

What leads us to the conclusion, that lyrically there's nothing to criticize here. We get the needed amount of bragging and boasting, but also some serious and reflective moments, all of it being well done. And so it's the beats that are holding back this record, with them not being able to hang with what's considered to be banging these days. Quite unfortunate that is.