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| One Man Army |
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producers: sun r.a.
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guests: the foundation, raquel dymin,
karmeleeza, sparks, big russ.
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| year of release: 2003 |
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| There used to be a competition about this.
People were arguing about it. Who's the best producer on the
mic? Who's the best emcee producing? Who's the best at both?
Now, well, now a complete self made men is actually rather frowned
upon. Strangely enough even in the do fo' delf circles too.
And at times truthfully so, because why would someone that's
excellent in one field, distract himself from practicing that
craft, by trying something else? Specializing is the name of
the game. Not for Sun R.A. though, who's the guy rapping on
here, the guy producing on here, and on the side, he's also
the guy that pushes the Double Infiniti label. |
| What then makes the conclusion that he's neither
incredible at rapping or producing a cheap shot. Especially
since it's only halfway true. First, he's able to do good beats,
as he proves on here. Plus he's also able to carry different
topics in a good rhyme fashion. Be it that he's cocky on the
title track "One Man
Army", where he says: "Fuck where you from,
you can catch me there shitting". At the same time, he's
real enough to ponder about "True
Love", before on "Steel
City Politics" and "U
Ain't Ready"
respectively, he invites in the posse, for some serious few
man army ripping. His true sidekick however is Raquel Dymin,
who's crooning on several songs, including the latter of the
posse cuts, as well as "Reaction"
and the interestingly done and conscious "Let
Me Breathe". Her voice on here is however not really
as functioning as on "Life",
one of the best songs on this album. That's due to the beat
being carried by a dope sample and the lyrics are easy to relate
to. |
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| This is however a 'soft' side you
will not find on "Grown
Man Talk" another one of the good songs
on here, as Sun R.A. puts together a simple piano
loop, that's rough in all bareness, offering the
perfect background for some braggadocios spitting.
The scratches take us to an untuned mixing though,
that's a sign of the surrounding, but not taking
away too much from the song. Further the voice struggles
to sound clear on "B
Safe" or "Better
Days", that's again political and
comes with a different progression and flow. Sun
R.A. goes the creative route on more tracks, like
on "Hunger Pains".
And he's only taking it too far on the hard to like
quick intermission "Beat
It". |
| Nevertheless, it's this courage,
along with the versatility of the lyrics (even getting
a little nasty on "Vibrate"
or poetic on "Sunday"),
plus the definite talent for production, that makes
this record entertaining. Also because thankfully
he kept the hidden track hidden. Because on there
he's trying too hard to sound like Kool Keith. And
there's no need for that, because Sun R.A. truly
got skills and huge potential. A potential that's
already strongly showing, but also hinting at further
growth. Growth both in production and lyrics, that
Sun R.A. can achieve if he's working hard at the
one and the other. That's double the effort. But
he's a one man army and no one said it's going to
be easy. |
| review:
tadah |
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to top | last changed :
02.08.2003
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