explanation of our rating: each album can get a total of 100 stripes. there are three categories the albums are rated in: lyrics (40 stripes), beats (40 stripes) and originality (20 stripes). the stripes in the dark green colour show the remaining stripes for the full 100.

You, who had the pleasure to witness Rahzel live, will remember the moment during the show, where you damn yourself that you didn’t sneak in a tape player to record his performance and to take it home with you. That will be around the time, when Rahzel goes into his ‘Moments In Love’ or ‘walking around in a space ship’ routine. And so the first thought when you get this album is: where’s that part?
Well, that’s the biggest let down of the album. Although there are short pieces of a live performance, it would have been so nice, if he’d just put down a performance on the album, that he normally puts down on the stage, and that blows everybody’s mind. Why didn’t he? Maybe just because the politics and bullshits thought that it wouldn’t be marketable. But one track out of 16? Oh well,...
Nevertheless, the first single and strongest cut "All I Know", is more than nice. It’s one of the tracks on which Rahzel rhymes himself. Although he got flow and rhymes stuff like "who's the man, Rahzel's the man, so yo, pass the method / 1200 styles, crush your crew without no effort / let me flip my, vocabulary, vocal acrobatics / microphone dramatics, I can jam like automatics" he certainly is not the nicest on the mic. But it’s the beat that takes this track over the top. An energy laden Pete Rock production, that just spreads a good feeling, seldom heard in hip hop lately.

Another track where he proves he can flow is "Carbon Copy (I Can’t Stop)", where he spits "yo, I'm the microphone champion / any stage you get me on or let me on / my ambionce is one step beyond / then my song is a correspond with the audionce / experionce the renaissonce, my resononce is really on". He also adds sound effects to the Scott Storch produced track and drops the yo mama line "yo, you're mother's so fat she wears a three piece thong".
On other tracks, Rahzel provides the beat, doing all the drums, bass, etc. with his voice. That’s exceptionally impressive on tracks like "Steal My Soul", where Rahzel goes up against Branford Marsalis, and they jam with their ‘horns’. The track "Southern Girl" will definitely blow your mind, when you listen to his voice acrobatics and the crooning of beautiful Erykah Badu (where’s the next album?). Magic. Same on the track with Q-Tip "To The Beat", where Rahzel orchestrates a jazz backdrop, that not only accordingly to the sleeve notes reminds us of A Tribe Called Quest of past glory.
His crew, the legendary Roots crew drop by to show their love on the relaxed and jazzy "Suga Sista", while Slick Rick drops by on "Night Riders", and with remaking the Biz Markie classic "Make The Music With Your Mouth, Biz" (with the genius Isaac Hayes "Ike’s Mood" piano), you get an interesting album, with highlights, no real wackness, but as said one big thing missing: Rahzel, uncut, doing his thing, like only he can. Maybe on the next one... (tadah the byk)