producers: dust, freddie bruno, beat rabbi, harry krum (aka playdough)

There's this thing with super groups. The idea is that the sum is bigger than its parts, but often, the sum is merely a subtraction of the individual talents. Just think of The Firm disaster. Now Deepspace 5 is a super group coming from the 'spiritual rap' circle, and the members go by the names of Dust (of Mars ILL), Freddie Bruno, Beat Rabbi (of Circumsized Mind), Sev Statik (also of the Tunnel Rats), Soul Heir the Manchild (of Mars ILL), Listener, The Recon (of the Pride), Sintax "The Terrific" (of the Pride), Playdough (of ill harmonics), as well as Illtripp 1. But he was not able to join the crew during the week that was set aside to record this album. With so many people being featured on here, it's hard to tell if his presence is missed though. At least hard for someone holding down the position of an outsider, that could never understand the role Illtripp 1 might have played.

Also, having so many members in your group it must be impossible to feature all of them on one track. Well, not impossible, but it takes a seven minute long "The Night We Called It A Day", with Dust hooking up the beat and Manchild, Listener, Playdough, Freddie Bruno, Sev Statik and Sintax kicking verses over a sample that Smif-N-Wessun first used. This will work as a thorough introduction to the various styles and priorities of the members, and you will have to give it to the cats, that Manchild is not the only one that can rhyme, while his verses might get an extra notch of attention. Lyrically we find poetic explorations of spiritual stances, what is actually a valid statement for a big part of this album. Well, at least for the tracks where the cats don't go for the braggadocios, like they partially do on "Elementary", they do on "Stick This In Your Ear" (that features a nifty flute sample) or the playful "Closed Caption", where the Listener is translating the sign language, hmm, well, I guess gesturing by Fong, while Beat Rabbi is providing the rhythm with his beatboxing.

Dust is coming with another dope beat on "Winter In Manhattan", that features a singing sample and a completed melancholic vibe. That is matched with sad explorations that are taking you in their grip. A similar moment is paid tribute to on "This Curse I Bear", where the oftentimes unnecessary, but imposed, struggles are explored, over a somewhat more hopeful beat. What then further changes to being straight up happy on "World Go Round", where Beat Rabbi hooks up a cut where everything is right, all the elements and details well fitting. And that tickles the best out of the emcees, who are obviously comfortable on this platform, speaking their observations, that are focusing on various things, with one being the greed of some music industry elements. And the conclusion is that it's the balanced ying and yang that keeps the world in rotation. "Thinking By Numbers" will then get your head in instant nodding motion, as this Beat Rabbi offering is simply irresistible, and making the staccato feel have a remarkable continuation. That is getting Manchild, Listener and Sev Statik to spit more of the combined representing and reflecting verses.

Looking for what we are not too cool with, there's "Take The Rhythm" that suffers from an annoying guitar and 'take the rhythm' sampled mentioning. "Ziontific" is operating as a religion history lession, that's strangely enough, and to not the best results, combined with a Mexican horn. On "F-Words" there's also small elements that rob this hard track off of our total okay, with us being over picky and unfair though. On "Murder Creek" more hard vibes are explored with them sounding mismatched, and the emcees not being able to fully adopt and cater to this style. And once more the statement will be unfair, but as okay as "Joywriting" and "If Tomorrow Starts Without Me" are, them just being 'okay' is making them mingle in between the indifferent area of dope and undope, that makes it impossible for a track to stand out.

Further to mention is, that not all flows are as well rounded as the ones by for example Manchild and Sev. That sometimes makes it less a gratifying experience to listen to this record, what is further tragic, as there is just so much being said on here. What we are quite relieved about though is, that we are also given un-serious issues on this album. Meaning that it would have been hard on us if the whole menu would have been of heavy spiritual content. But at the same time it gets confusing when the line is not completely drawn when both styles are present. That leaves us with the question if to vibe to this or take it in as the serious message it most likely originally was meant to be. But despite all this slack given, the record is proving everyone wrong that expected this to be rather bad and not able to blend in with all the records that don't have the same agenda. As it sure is good and despite it being positive, could hang with that most popular ignorant, if that can even be a goal.