A little while ago, The Immortal Mic Union gave us the album "O.R.I.O.N.". In the years since then, something has chance. Some anger must have grown in these artists, as with this release "A Declaration Of Independents" the stance got more militant and the message more in your face. As an independent group, some of the victims are however obvious, hence it's not surprising that on "Independents" all the 'crystal slurping', the 'new shit mix tapes', the ills and errors of that ugly side is being discussed and discharged. The different realities of the differences of the rap field and hip hop culture is discussed on "Metaphor Metropolis" a track that's performed by Ajent O, describing as much as creating a theoretical and idealistic place of dwelling for hip hop.

Getting so called 'conscious' is "Crime In The City" where we listen to one of these too true killing fields (aka the inner city streets) stories. The struggle then is also the rhetoric spoken on "Sacrifice", with the words most likely stemming from first hand experience. However the head people like to party as well, they brag too, so don't be surprised by a "The Spotlight", where we get something for the crowd to go 'aaaah'. The same is again done on "Back 2 Basics" and the Jargon feat. Mic Bronto track "Who's The Actual?". The track "Live From Somewhere" by Speed of Rime Royal and Loki is also going that route, with this giving you a bundle of punchlines you will remember.

On the beat tip, some tracks stand out as well, so for example the mind, body and soul rhetoric doing "Evolution", that profits from a blues guitar lick, while on "Iza", some electronic stabs and circling is utilized by Ningishzidda, gives us a spiritual solo cut. "Food For Thought" is giving us exactly that, while it's paired with a swinging beat, that's well working and a light hearted contrast to the, well not always, head heavy lyrics. This is one of the best tracks on here, as is track no. 18. The melancholy of "Constant Changes" is then giving us sweet bitterness, that furthers the hurt words and story Ningishzidda and Ajent O tell us. We further shouldn't miss to mention the two scratched intermissions, them being "The Warm Up", the second "Develop Mental".

Looking for the bad tracks, there's the thoroughly underproduced "Circle Of Life", that also just gives us the too off beat and unmastered flow of Furious of Rime Royal, resulting in a unspectacular song, that only succeeds with its content. Nevertheless cut like this don't prevent the big portion of the album to give us master lyrical adventures, that especially content wise are very good, along with beats that are confident to not be remixes of tried and tested formulas. At the same time however, this is not the best album on this planet, as it at times is under produced, lacking edginess that gives it a poignant recognizable uniqueness. What in a way means, there are no true big hits on here, with that however being even less a concern to the artists than it should be for you.