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| And the album starts with a bang. What is the perfect way to start an album. Rusty Chains, the man with the husky voice, kicks in the door with the support of a low boom currently by the sole producer on this record Kaz 1. "The Go" is the track and it will have your
attention from the very first second. It also introduces us to the Rusty, who's the man for the rough edges: while others cut, he chops. While other fold, he bends. So he slices himself through the weeds, spits, kicks and reps Chicago on the side. And if this song was not convincing enough, then after
"Recognize", you'll recognize. |
| The rest of the album then does a lot of that and more: Rusty throws the battleground dice, which lands on the punchline side, promising a lot of braggadocio. So on the big posse cut "Bang 2 This", that features fellow
Chicago knuckleheads Longshot and Verbal Kent. Or later Gravel compadre Matlock appears on "Get Drunk Pt. 2", that raises the glass, while Kaz 1 raises the bar with a piano laced bouncy beat. |
| However, even the hardest cat can struggle under the circumstances. That's why Rusty opens his vulnerable side for "Depressed", where he expresses the sentiments of an anonymous lost generation, the key kids, where TV was the nanny and where the lack of playgrounds
socialized the children individually. Or there's "The Night Is..." a track that enters the dark world of beings that never enter areas of sunlight, but hide their ugly masks in the dark. Including Rusty Chains, who has the persona, character,
as well as voice, that's more ghostly Hyde, than publicly Jeckyll. Rusty also explores the stereotypical 'I'm independent and broke' scenario, with a twist though. Because he says that all the glossy, flashy, glimmering hoopla is just not for him, on "Ain't My Thing". He's rather comfortable
with the things he discusses on "Relax" though, before he pours his heart out on "Diane". |
| And while for the most part Kaz 1's production is really good, ranging from the excellent "The Go", to the cool "Get Drunk", to the good and hard "Gloomy Days", there are some hard crashes to the floor of reality in between. "Punch
While Rap", a song that also features Kaz rhyming, features a rather boring and standard, half arsed pseudo commercial beat. "My Year" also struggles, while further down the line, Kaz really comes through again with a string heavy "World
Of Temptation", that features dope drum programming, as well as quite the sociological lyrics. |
| What all adds up to this record straying away from just one thing, but actually accomplishes to detour all the bragging and boasting into honest areas of true thoughts. Plus you get good beats by Kaz 1, thus completing the gathering of the things on our demand list. Therefore Rusty
is able to accomplish himself as a gritty and serious emcee, that's versatile, talented and who still has room left for more scars. |
| review: tadah |
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