4. Lay The Law

Yo, it's an awkward phenomenon, that sex and violence seem to be of the most fascinating to us human beings. So we like to fuck and kill folks. Aight. However, that has nothing really to do with this album. On the surface that is. Cause if you add bragging, nut grabbing and down staring, these are the most prominent topics on this recording here. They either wanna fuck you, or they say you can't fuck with them, and if you are still mocking up, they're gonna smack you down, 'ping' style.

"Face the nightmarish prospect of a new dark age", the album opens. This is some dark, aargh, type intro right there. But that vibe is not kept up by the rest of the album. Cause already on "Bump My Shhh", the very generous request "just buy my shit and love it, if you can't afford it, dub it, no matter how you get it: bump my shit", is transforming into a rather nasty demand, and if you are a r'n'b cat, not into hip hop, then you better hide from the Dark Water Emperors. This Bum Rap produced track is rather bare, that keeps the attention with the rhymes. That also goes for the somewhat old schoolish sounding "Knowhere", where Bum Rap and Avatar stitched together another bass heavy, little tune, for the DWE to drop some braggin' and boasting rhymes. And "Lay The Law" combines some arcade sounds with rhymes about others that suck in life, in love, in breathing, in whatever, whenever.

So let this be followed by another braggadocios rhyme, "Are You Sick?" gives the emcees an opportunity to flow over a sticky drum that Avatar pulled together. The next gem is "Did It Done It?". The beat kicks in lovely, with a drum, similar to the one on the cut before this one, but dope scratches and a humming Hammond or other kind of organ provide for the first part. The beat then switches, gets a little harder, but still remains very much within the boarders set at the beginning. Oh, and then the beat switches again, unfortunately not to the first part, but this, again, old schoolish sounding, boom boom sound parcel is keeping us very entertained.

We are now warmed up for a little party, in the form of the first nasty cut. So lock away your kids, this is barely for your ears. Stroking their egos, and having women stroke something else, "We Don't Pay" declares that "we don't pay for pussy, honey". Even the apple pie thing gets pulled, and with a very westcoast, early 90s bay area funk beat, this sounds funny. Next up is "Flood The Market". Not the most outstanding cut compared to the rest on here, and so we are hopping to the next cut. "Regulation" has a nice bubbling beat, another dope drum, and some female going 'aahuhaaa'. Rather confusing is "Get That One Off". Some suffering singing is opening the track, that then goes on into another one of those getting the girls out their panties track. With the dark beat in the back, this is some molesting, raping shit, rather than some mushy, hold hands, flower in your hair type track.

One of the highlights of this album comes in the form of "Who's In Charge". It would be too obvious to say, because the DWE is recovering one of the original Heavyweights Volume 10 (you know the "Hip Hopera" guy) to bless this beat with his lyrical swinging. But the whole track, the production is dope, not only concerning the beat, but also the sound effects, the little shout ins, etc. Same goes for "Now Hoes", a live show impersonation, complete with a dope and jazzy piano, with the emcees doing the nasty thing again, even shouting easy available females out in the 'crowd'. Next up is "Amazement" feat. Vanylla Chile, that again keeps us happy with a dope beat, animated and entertaining rhymes ("I had a different bitch for every time I masturbated"), very dope little stereo effects, and an over all good feel. What only leaves us with a 'smack him up' with a pan "Ping!!" outro. This is well executed, with a dope musical background, but the content was uncalled for.

Aight, there's a little something that has to be criticized: sometimes the emcee's voices sound like there's just not enough weight behind 'em. In these moments, these cats need to get more comfortable behind the mic, cause what they say is dope. However, the fun thing about this album is, it has a lot of humor and it sounds pretty much like nada else out now. They got their own flavor, that does build on the old Alkaholiks, Volume 10, Bay Area, LA type vibe. It makes us think of those days, makes us wanna ride, makes us kinda happy, right? Whatever, these cats get props for putting out a dope album.