This Phaize II is not the legendary writer outta New York (that'd be Phase2), but he's a Cosmic Souls member outta Cincinnati. Offering us his seven track EP, we are quite anxious to hear what the cat is doing, after the also crew members Definition have blessed us with a remarkably dope EP. But early on we have to find out that this is good enough, but not that good. And that includes the beats, as well as the rhyming.

But these are harsh words at the beginning of a review and they need backing reasoning, what we then find on the opening cut "2nd Phaize Of Reality". What could be taken as a complaint or compliment, this cut is solid. We get representing verses, that are intertwined with esoteric verbals, but with all of that being rather standard. The beat is even a little bit boring with little happening to it during its duration. At least in this department we get something better next, as Big Phill steps up with his offering for "Rythmatic". Hi-Low and Dawatchmen (Picket Fence, Silent Assasin, 13th Floor and Phaize II) share this cut, and the beat includes a smooth guitar, as well as a lot of room for the verses. One cat even spits dope and funny lines, while his hard, loud and harsh voice is still giving them a hard time to be fully recognized.

The title track "Art Of Hip Hop" has us return to Phaize II produced chapters, and again we are not completely satisfied. The beat is doing some sort of medieval house band guitar instrumentation, with again little changing (but that little being very needed, like the piano that appears from time to time), and the drum being too loud and simple. And as much as we enjoy the lyrics, that talk about hip hop being art, and nothing else, we have heard this rhetoric a lot of times before. And with Phaize struggling from a standard and unspectacular flow, the track again leaves us unsatisfied. "The Streets" sounds like a hustler sermon, it being at first spoken, to then only later having verses appear. The beat is getting interesting, once the chimes / vibes come on, with the content of the verses again being better than their execution.

Sjuanne is singing a borrowed from somewhere else hook on "The Truth", that then appears to be the first cut that we truly like. Cause Phaize finds a dope sample that he combines with more good elements, and finally he mixes the whole thing well. Also finally his flow is sounding good too. It's a little more off beat on here, but what mainly saves it, is that it doesn't go for the same rhyming scheme so blatantly anymore, that spoils his other tracks. And with the content being dope too, as Phaize is spitting some wisdom, we are again full of hope, admitting that this dude can be doing good, if he only wants to.

But he doesn't seem to want to on "3 The Hard Way" and "Mental Inslavery", as both beats are spoiled by synthetic sounds. What is unfortunate in the latter case, cause the elements on "Mental Inslavery" would have guaranteed a good cut, as the sad melody, as well as the dark sounds would sound brilliant if done in a different than this cheap keyboard sound. And Phaize is doing one deep spoken word cut on here, that wouldn't have needed the distortion, but that's not only spoken from the heart, but filled with still relevant struggling and content.

So what we need to say about this is, that we hope that this was Phaize's first few steps, and that he grew since he has done this record. Because if it's a demo where he tries a couple of things, as well as where he's still looking for his sound, then we have little trouble with it. If this is meant to be what Phaize intends to continue to do in the future, then we probably have to use harsher words the next time.