producers: the architect, joey chavez

guests: dave dub, grand the visitor, kendar, turban, pep love, the bishop

If you want to get a listeners attention at the beginning of your album, an intro usually is the bloody toe in the pool of piranhas. Not in this case though. Encore, westcoast emcee extraordinary, opts for a simple Architect beat (who produced all but one track on this record here), that is unforgivable basic, but works so well in it's limitness. Using this structure, Encore spits "The Bio" in a truly introductionary fashion and it will not get much better than this throughout the album. Approaching our minds, he mixes biographical elements with his own manifestation of why to do this, and spits "as the mass get they ass served in herds / similar to cattle, putting they life up on collateral / yo, but for you this may not matter though / see for me, this is therapy / critical thinking to keep my ass away from drinking / and smoking, locing wit my folks when it's unproductive / Allah selective who he keeps protecting / so I keep this all in perspective".

On "For You", a piano provides the backbone that upholds the body of work. Architect also adds some scratching, chopped horns, that wouldn't have been necessary. Either the vibe continues and creates a completeness, or the third track sounds unwanted similar to the first two. In any way, "Esoteric (Exec Anthem)" teams up Encore with Dave Dub, while the first proclaims that "me and this microphone have this Love Jones going on". What gets us to a piano concentrated composition called "Love & Hate (The Mellow Drama)". As this provides our main artists with another chance to shine through his beyond par vocal and lyrical capability, he benefits from the chemistry between himself and the complicated but straight production skills of the Architect. And the latter mixes a voice sample of the movie "Do The Right Thing" into the appropriate place, to compliment the overall message.

Things turn in an unwanted direction on "Considadis", as Grand The Visitor and Encore are rhyming in a bragging version of their intellectual self. The beat suffers to do anything amazing, even though a cucumber sound, and an interesting drum make this something to be studied, even though it still remains to be hard to vibe to. And so we are glad to note, that things return to the usual, although that isn't necessarily something we should be glad about. However, there's again a piano on ".084" that has us find a musicality, an admiring artistic approach in this music. This track also allows Encore to showcase his story telling skills, as he is telling us a tale of when he 'first found Allah'. And he spits this anti-pulp without breaking for a chorus.

Well, we did know that he's a thinking man's emcee. He also shows that on "The View" (along with the featured Kedar), that suspiciously teams him up with another bouncy, club ready beat. But with the smooth vibes, the track remains to be in the infield. Teaming up with Turban and Holekost on "E.T.", with the latter sounding like a rookie, and the first very much that he's coming from the bay, Encore entangles his tongue in knots and twisters, when he's going "in 2G's I plan to move heat / figure G's beats, it be who's the weak to lose sleep / I chose to keep my grip firm / see while you ride the dick and spit sperm / we're too deep with the use of no lie just like the dip's perm / spurn rock conventional wisdom, the quintessential wordsmith / learning in curb shit, who's turf-less / cursed wit the earth-less flow".

Moving beyond another weak beat offering on "Sporadic", Hiero's own Pep Love shows up on "The Situation". And to his luck, the beat is banging, and the vocal chemistry works as well as we expect from two veterans in their field of trade. The short interlude of "Live From S.F." takes us to "Takin' It", that again pleases us with it's early summer night vibe. Of course the formula stays the same, but just like gumbo, that always contains okra, it still does not always taste the same. What can also be said about "Self Preservation", the title track, and one of the highlights of this album. Guest The Bishop positions himself right in front of the US' hypocrisy and speeches another chapter of his manifest, over a sparkling, rolling and plush beat carpet.

What takes us to the Joey Chavez beat on "It's Going Down" and eventually to the "Bonus Track", if you copped the CD, that then in actuality is nowhere to be found. Well, it's also not hidden as a special bonus, if you shove this CD in your computer, and it's not hidden on the bonus CD that you get with the package, as 'only' the Dr. Octagon video "Blue Flowers" can be found on that disc. However, this unsuccessful search shouldn't put a damper on an otherwise well received album.