A nifty little detail: in the inside of this album, there are two small pics of the two members of Mars ILL: Dust and manCHILD. And on these pics, both of them are sporting a wide smile. No grill, no frown, no baring of one's teeth. This is not on some, what doesn't bark, has to bite type vibe though. This is on some: 'I'm comfortable with what I accomplished, that's why I can look comfortable'. And they did accomplish much with this record. They gathered all kinds of people (best known probably Chief Xcel and Gift Of Gab of Blackalicious) on "Mars Ill", giving these ATL brethren a shout out. And with so much praising, one is hard tempted to mention anything lacking or slacking in this offering. Then again, it would be hard to find anything with this Dust produced offering, anyways. Same goes for "Sphere Of Hip Hop", with a repetitious orchestra, Soulheir (the manCHILD) goes through a list of what hip hop is, exposing at the same time, what hip hop is not. And showing what Mars ILL is and what others are not, they go into a turntablism piece with "We'll Live Underground (Turntable Feast)", where Dust gives us a 'turntablist experiment'.

But a ILL does not go out without a fight, and rather than grabbing the bayonet, wasting heads by chopping them off, he uses "Unsound", to put alternatives into brains, that will kill the thoughtcrime banner, that prevents the synapses to take in anything but propaganda. Both sides then clash during "Send A Man", a dope interlude and break to things, as this is based around a voice sample, a hilariously dope organ, and constant shifts, that showcases Dust's ability to tell a musical story, with a journey of sounds in slightly less than two minutes. This well appreciated detour then gets us to "Compound Fractures", a return to the good tradition of talking ish, that manCHILD hones alongside of Sintax. Basing the next cut "Rap Fans" around a shuffling, shuffling like in the tap dance move, drum, manCHILD plans to "tattoo my name on your eardrum", teaming up with Sharlock Poems over this Scot Matelic beat, and the opposers are to be turned into people that will duck the objects that are being thrown at them, may they be lyrical or solid.

Now, there's something about the long unfolding of "Under The Sun" feat. Listener, that's unpleasing. It's hard to pinpoint it out, but it probably is the synthetic sounding horn, flute (panpipe's or not), that gives this an unwanted sound. Thoughtful rhymes are combined with a singalong chorus, that makes sense, and even though not demanded, is still nicer than the beat. That luckily though switches towards the end of the second 3rd for a little while, only to then be abandoned too quickly, to return to it's original state. So when Dust was slacking on his contribution the track before, he's making up again with "Sounds Of Music". Mostly the running piano, but also the hidden added enhancements are making this a joy to listen to. In the meantime, Soulheir, Rahlo and Sintax go through thesis and theories, before with "Who Will Answer", Dust takes out an Asian sounding collage, that has a lot going on in the back, like a scenery in "Street Fighter". Of course he's running the risk of being annoying with repeating this sound continuously, but as you should be paying attention to what the in house emcee and Remnant Militia rhyme about, as this is rather emotional, you shouldn't remain around the annoyance. However, the risk is prevented anyways, with Dust switching the beat again for a while, before returning to the beginning being, after we got the first sound out of our ear, and can welcome it again.

The producing half of the ILL then gives us the "Indulgent Instrumental #1", an insane collage of schizophrenic sounds and confused effects, that actually sound really dope. Why not do something party possible next? "Try Again" (feat. Flyn Adams Atkins), containing the third Scott Matelic beat, opts for being bouncy, and manCHILD adapts to such carelessness. But this couldn't go on for long, and "Touch And Go" returns to battle ship type tracks, with a menacing Dust beat, and setting things straight rhymes. Sev Statik also drops by to put his venom in our ear, while we shouldn't forget the complimentary scratching, Dust always adds to tracks. Dope cut. And what starts out being somewhat mockingly restrained, allows cuts to take the center stage on "Indulgent Instrumental #2". What leaves us with one remaining track, that is "The END", and that is finishing this album with a blast. Not only because of the battle ship sample, the new details that forever appear, but also because of manCHILD's unbreathing throughout spitting.

And so after leaving us with a still sizzling brand, we conclude, that it's rather impossible to offer something flawless. Things usually loiter between okay (meaning solid), and aight (meaning, this got something going on). But those attributes wouldn't be the right one's to chose for this. Almost all on this is as ill as a bad cold. Most of it is a serious fever, and a whole lot of this album is a straight up deadly malaria.