| tracklisting |
| 1. Da Anthem |
| 2. Automatic |
| 3. Two Strikes, Two Out |
| 4. I Rok, U Rok |
| 5. Rep Dat |
| 6. No Doubt |
| 7. End Of Dayz |
| 8. Vibin' |
| 9. Dates Ova |
| 10. In/Out |
| 11. We Three |
| 12. What My Name Iz? |
| 13. False Armor |
| 14. Up Top |
| 15. Chilla |
| 16. Challenge!!! |
| 17. No Winz |
| 18. Rushmore |
| 19. Homicidal Intent |
| 20. Whateva Nigga |
| 21. Apocalypse |
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|
| And that's what they do: they brag,
they boast, the spit, the kick, they threaten, they
do that and little more. What however also shows
their hunger, what is something we respect a lot.
Nevertheless the lyrics are glued to these topics,
thus mainly the beats are offering differences.
What then on "Two
Strikes, Two Outs" happens to be
an instrument sounding like a fake piano. This is
one of the several short songs, with this one finding
the time to ask "cash pays the price, but can
it save your life?" "I
Rok, U Rok" continues the holier
than thou' route, with Black Krow throwing fists.
It takes "Rep Dat"
to get us interested again, as here the sounds are
of more electronic character, and they don't try
to recreate a real instrument. That immediately
makes the beat sound better and in this case here
makes the emcees sound more dangerous, as they got
the back up of a musical mob. Also good is the background
crowd answering that "Da
Anthem" did and that's repeated
on "No Doubt".
That works well for the cats, especially as on here
they do a staggering flow, and let the mic circle
quick amongst 'em. Hence this finally is living
up to the title of the project, as this sounds like
a true cipher. |
| Bundling up a couple of tracks,
we note the female contribution to "End
Of Dayz", bypass "Vibin'",
"Dates Ova"
and "In/Out",
with in the last's case the beat again adding extra
strength to the words, with the anger it possesses.
Then we run past the very week "We
Three", to slow down for "What
My Name Iz?", where we dare to listen
to the rhymes again, as the beat does not hurt us.
There are ghostish sounds that are paired with words
that stomp this cat's presence in our consciousness.
Next is "False Armor"
with choral like singing in the back. Here's to
note that the rhymes stop the continuously throwing
blazing spitballs at the competition, but they instead
opt for Gods and Earth like rhetoric. The beat on
"Up Top"
is disgusting; hence we skip to the only slightly
better "Chilla".
By now our standards have been lowered though, at
least that's how it seems, as we start to be okay
with the style of this short interlude. Checking
out "Challenge!!!"
though, we are reminded how it could be done, as
this beat is cool again, while the lyrics continue
to do what they have been doing up to this point. |
| "No
Winz" and "Rushmore"
are both not too impressive outside of the context
of this album, but as part of this album, better
than the majority of the songs. We however struggle
to find much to get excited about in the musical
backing of "Homocidal
Intent", "Whateva
Nigga" and "Apocalypse".
Lyrically, this is just bragging and boasting, stirred
with a little threatening and all of it done in
solid flows, okay mic presence, thus resulting in
okay lyrics. And as that is not changed throughout
the album. Thus it really is the beats that decide
if the song rises above or remains to hover underneath
the okay line. And many of the beats are thoroughly
failing to be much of a benefit. But can the dry
spitting be enough? What if you get an unimpressive
beat (I mean, where are the dope samples fellers?),
but also only halfway impressive lyrics, that still
fail to make up for the musical weakness? Well… |
| review:
tadah |
|
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