label: royal bunker / grooveattack
crew consists of: Kool Savas, Justus Jonas, FumanShu, Martin Bütow, Melbeatz, Fuat, Illo, Ronald Mack Donnald und Jack Orsen
rating
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tracklisting
1. Intro
2. Schlangen
3. Tsakkaa
4. NLP
5. Entr8
6. Elefanten
7. Wer Rhymt Geschwinnt
8. Br8
9. Hörst Du Was Du Sagst?
10. Louis
11. Bei Mir
12. Wer Du Bist
13. Gib8
14. Spreng Die Bank
15. Jeder Weg
16. Fremd Im Eigenen Land (Pt. II)
17. Nordwestberlin
18. Rain

 

N.L.P. (Neuro-Linguistische Programmierung)

Smooth is the introduction to the album. With a tender groove the listener is welcomed by a female voice to this record. Actually one would enjoy to continue to listen to this, but suddenly the chopped beat and the rough, but flow heavy rhymes of "Schlangen" shake us back into reality. And already now we realize what we will be listening to for the rest of the album: battle rhymes! The skit up next operates as a self advertisement. Imitating (but not living up to others that have done this before and better) Harry Weiford's famous 'Home Order TV gibberish', it tries to point out the qualities of this record [tadahsters says: this also is a Dutch feller, not Harry though, but that 'Tschakka' dude].

Up next is a short (and continuously repeated) flute-loop and a not too complex drum sample. Things are loosened up with one of the rare scratch moments (going 'funny style niggas'). The flow of the battle rhymes might be able to connect with the music, but the need for wit and originality gets not satisfied. The next skit actually has a good groove, that could have been used for something to build upon, but after just about one minute, the whole thing gets 'wie ein Schiff versenkt' (sunk like a ship). With "Elefanten", a track follows that features an interesting orchestra / guitar-sample, but the lyrics don't contain much else but harmless disses.

"Wer Rhymt Geschwinnt" appears in the Big-City-Style. The extreme flow matches well the probably most challenging sample. But content wise, this struggles to be more than an embarrassing Gangster track. The next skit gives us real old school hip hop though, with straight up beats and rhymes. But unfortunately this is already over after only 40 seconds.

Next, shrill beats open up the posse cut. "Hörst Du Was Du Sagst" has only one message though: 'damn, do we have a dope record!'.

After a quick detour through the Kindergarten ("Louis") we are to take in an accordion sample. For some reason I can't decide, if this is supposed to remind me of some sailor tune or the last smash hit by Jaÿ-Z.

Now finally on "Wer Du Bist", for the first time the chorus happens to work. With the xylophone sample, this track can be called one of the best on the album. And also the next skit once more features interesting sound experiments, but as said: it's but a skit.

The first few notes on "Spreng Die Bank" let us think of an old '70s soundtrack. This is being confirmed by the gloss-less Disco Funk that follows. And with this groove, the voices of the emcees finally appear with character, and there is almost some sort of musical emotion coming through. "Jeder Weg" owns a crunchy beat, smoothly underlain and supported by a farting bass. The battle rhymes are flowing along well too. Once more a something bright, but for this album complex beat, is made to be put under the battle rhymes (what else) on "Fremd Im Eigenen Land (Part II)".

"Nordwestberlin" is another Big City track, but once more it's nothing but, battle, battle, battle.....so 'also komm schon Baby und beweg deinen Arsch'! [tadahster explains: this is a quote from a successful hit by Daichkind, and means 'come on baby, move your ass', to paraphrase]. And a rocky and dark exit then is eventually provided by "Rain".

So concluding, it's fair to say, that there's plenty of flow on here. But it's strongly dependent on the sounds. Because as soon as the sounds are getting interesting, so does the flow. But as the music for the most part, doesn't feature any nuances, this monotony is holding back the rhymes as well. But in total, the lyrics are giving us little that stands out, and so no rhyme has burned itself into my brain. Actually, there's little content to the lyrics anyways, as they are limited to disses and battle babbling.

The monotony of the beats has already been mention. This also has an influence on the rhymes: on such a foundation, no emcee is able to give himself character and gusto. There also can't be anything found on here, that in any way could be considered as being anything groundbreaking. And so we have to suspect that not much time has been invested into the creation of the sounds: the loops are short and there are little to no extra effects. And the mixing resulted in being rather shrill too.

review: ax

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