producers: stowaways, ch productions

'Ey, it's The Landlords, and The Landlords are Roper and Furlee. They are now giving us the ten track album "Rent's Due". Their name however is giving them a bad start, as the shudder we get from their name and title, we are not really getting in the best of moods. What is in contrast to what this album is aiming to do, as it's music on a rather happy vibe. So you are getting tracks like the short "Three's A Crowd", with the funny 'this was wonderful' voice sample. Following is "Iron Curton" and "Pioneer", with the last featuring Omega 5 and it collecting the humorous punchlines. For some odd reason it claims a pioneer status for themselves, what is something that makes little if any sense to us. The production on the first of the two is done by CH Productions, while the second, and all other tracks are produced by Stowaways. And he's keeping them in a last century style, that are of a notch beyond bouncy proportions.

And so they are not really urging you to move, and they also are a little too restrained to make it inevitable for you to nod your head. That all sounds very critical, and so does not really represent the appeal of the tracks, that are, like in the case of "Kings Of The Ring" (the track features Stowaways, Cosmroks, Verbal) by no means weak. They are just struggling to stand out, or make it immediate that you will remember them. Things get better on "Toilet Sonata", as the string heavy beat is having that charming late 60s style, that immediately gives you the image of some shady private eye office. This solo track is having us find the hero being rather frustrated with the world, as he's "not a fan of magazines / but ironically I possess issues". After that a short interlude is appearing called "Strokin'", where some singer is talking about the game he has in the bedroom. This is thematically paving the way for "Paper View", a track that features Robust. Now the combination of these nasty rhymes with a beat that samples the "Matlock" TV Theme is funny enough, as so this surely will get your walker rocking. It's with little doubt the coolest track on this record.

Of course at the same time this cut shows on what underground level this record is released, because getting sample clearance for that tune in any other level must be considered impossible. And the way "Kinkle Epidemik" sounds, is once more furthering this finding on their location, as we are given a solid track, that however does not sound big enough. The drum is rather weak, but even weaker on "Sword Of Omen", another cut featuring Stowaways, who, as mentioned, is also responsible for the beat. And this cat is not annoying us with bad offerings, with his sample choices being interesting, the execution working. But as just stated, they are not big enough, and with that meaning, that at whatever volume you play it, it's not giving you the wall of sound that should hit you. Lyrically the emcees are falling in similar traps, with their flows being solid, and the way they put their lyrics together, like on this "Sword Of Omen" cut, where they are making it a superiority tale, is getting across what is to be said. However, they are still having a hard time to make themselves stand out.

And so while we check the "Pleasant Day *Swan Song*" Outro, that again features the Intro dialogue cats going, along with a jazzy instrumental beat, we can conclude that this album is solid. It's fair to say that we are enjoying ourselves listening to it. However, it fails to be an exceptional album. As if you want to release a special album, you need to record songs, that are unique, so that if the listener wants to get a certain vibe, the only chance to get it is to listen to your record. This however is not accomplishing that. There are other records out there that fit a similar space. Hence this record is cool, but it prevents itself to be better.