11. Microphone Igniter feat. E-La

With the growth of the German hip hop scene, the cats rhyming steadily moved away from dropping words in English to spit in their mother tongue. And so it's interesting enough that Raptile opts to do his verses in Shakespeare's language. Even more interesting is, that while in the hip hop circles this quite likely gets you to be frowned upon, in the music world, it got Raptile a recording contract with SubWorld, a company that is being handled by giant BMG.

Together with the man behind the turntables DJ Roger Rekless, the two are doing "Da Basilisk's Eye", that starts with the "Introduction". This is a dramatic entry showcasing the scratching skills of the DJ, as well as the patchwork talents of Glammerlicious, who will handle the production on all the excellent beats on this album. But it's Raptile that takes over the boards on "My Style is Free", a track that is a bouncy and braggadocios second introduction. "Transatlantic Partnership" teams up this German dude with fellow BMG handled artists, the Canadian Rascalz. This track is fully club ready, without blatantly going for it. There's a nifty bump to it, getting you moving automatically. Changing the style, the strings on "U Should Know" are bringing us back to the chairs, with not even our neck doing much movement anymore. What means that the beat isn't totally banging, while the lyrics are talking about taking responsibility, criticizing certain trends, with Raptile taking a stance, and we approve of that.

The next cut "Rest Ya Head On My Chest" is going a early 90s route, with horns sounding like lifted off "U.N.I.T.Y.". Kary Dooley is doing some humming, while Raptile is getting a story out, about him meeting hip hop, making this the offering where he tells us how he feels about this artform. The beat is slightly spoiled by the sung chorus, with the funky wah wah guitar having us forgive the misstep though. Then there's a short track coming up with "Magnum Opus Nineeight". It starts with the turntable trickery, and as dope the slicing by Roger is, the beat that Glammerlicious hooked up for this song is even nicer. Raptile takes it to get some more battling words out, with the track stopping after one verse done. So we continue to "Rokinyablokz" where Raptile teams up with the legendary Main Concept, who rhyme in German. There's another guest on "Times Change", this time Mike adding more unneeded singing. The Raptile beat is somewhat desperately urging, giving it a cool feel. Moving on we get "That's My Man", a track featuring DJ Mixwell and Illo. The track is actually pretty nice as Illo is first giving props to Mixwell, who backs up the praise with his scratches. Next Raptile is doing the same with Roger Rekless, bigging him up, and then the mentioned man is getting his scratching going.

As Glammerlicious return on the production tip, you can be sure that the beat will be butter again. And it is on "On My Way", where we somewhat get a sequel, as again Raptile is opting for a story, it being about him being 'on his way'. The contrast to "Microphone Igniter" featuring E-La is a little too harsh: after such smooth bliss, a pushing forward track is rather hitting you over the head. Moving on, the Sleepwalker produced "Livin Right" is featuring the toasting contribution of Tony. Raptile goes for the intro- and retrospective, making this a thank you track, him showing his appreciation of his mom and dad. Next up is "Take Ya Time", a track that is not leaving much of an impression, it just being bouncy, and it just battling. There's more of an edge to the beat on "Who Dat!?", where TimXtreme is showing up to add his fingerprints to the making of this record, and comes totally correct with his punchlines. And Raptile is again welcoming guests, even a bundle of them, on "Soulblade", with Backdraft, Fringsen and Laki aka Shawn Geil appearing on this offering. This also goes for the 'yo, I'm better than you' content, and while the piano adds a little more excitement, the darkness is still more to the aight, than to the 'ah yeah'.

On "We Don't Need You", a stage routine opens the track, with Raptile asking the crowd to repeat the only worthwhile thing Pras ever said: "too many emcees, not enough mics". The track then blows in the same horn, taking apart all those that are wrongfully trying to grasp our attention with their efforts behind the mic. Kamillion and Providence are lending a helping hand, with one of them having a really comfortable voice. We are then happy to note that Glammerlicious are/is back on "Still On My Way", and we are given something smooth and nice. The flute during the chorus is another butter offering, and once more taking this beat over the top, making it one of the best on here. Now as the last track on this album, we get the Tropf & Dynamite Remix of "Rokinyablokz". David Pe does some rhyming on here too, over some bloating synthetic horns, with the lyrics giving some blows to critics.

First of all, we are very happy to be able to say that Raptile doesn't have a broad German accents. But he still sounds different. Maybe that's just the impression our knowing of his whereabouts gives us. Whatever the language, if this is what major label hip hop is about in Germany, then we are glad to note, that it's to a big extent more to our enjoyment, then a lot of what the US is throwing down our throat on their majors.