A Prelude To Nothing
label: fordafresh

producers: mediogre, scientific, elevation, infinito, j-max, foul intalekt, pns, koes, panik.

guests: qwel, prim, pugslee atomz, elevation, infinito, nizm, ndvisual, kenetic wisdom, robust, foul intalekt.
year of release: 2002
Verbal is an avid battle emcee. And he spends the good part of this record battling. Maybe even more so on here, than on his previous record "A Road To Nowhere". And just like he battles on almost every track on here, almost every song features one or the other guest. Not on "Asshole" though, that is a continues lining up of punchlines. And when Verbal is not dissing someone off the stage, he's contributing to ciphers. And that vibe is captured on the songs where more than just one or two guest drop by. With the most exciting (considering the guests) probably just being "Weird Science" that has Verbal team up with the prime of Chicago hip hop, going by the names of Qwel, Pugslee Atomz and uhm Prime. And they spit over an angry orchestrated beat, without hook and with Qwel spitting "you're merely hearing echoes of kleptos screaming 'I can't take it'" and the end urging you to "pick up an application for may fanclub near the exit sign". The same team then also does "Mad Sick". This is just as much a highlight, with the four attacking the mic without hesitation and mercy.

tracklisting
1. Intro
2. Asshole
3. Weird Science feat. Qwel, Prime, Pugslee Atomz
4. Interlude
5. Hostile Takeover feat. Elevation
6. Pointless feat. Infinito
7. A Prelude To Nothing
8. Interlude
9. Rotation feat. Scientific, Elevation
10. Aggression feat. Prime, Nizm
11. Interlude
12. Vulgar feat. Foul Intalekt, Kenetic Wisdom, Ndvisual
13. The Movie Song
14. Thought Of The Day feat. Elevation, Scientific
15. Mad Sick feat. Prime, Pugslee Atomz, Qwel
16. Interlude
17. Scrimmage feat. Qwel, Elevation
18. That Love Shit
19. Untitled feat. Robust, Elevation
20. Outro / Shout Outs
The recording quality then gets subterraneous on "Hostile Takeover", one of the many songs with Verbal's Manifest Destiny compadre Elevation. The two spit battle verses over an Elevation produced beat, just like they do on "Rotation", here inviting Scientific to join in on the fun. The three then also do "Thought Of The Day" over a Scientific beat. The quality gets even worse on "Scrimmage", with the whole recording quality being enormously simple. Elevation and Qwel spit along Verbal quickly passing along the mic, again giving the impression of a spontaneous session, rather than a long plotted song. What does not have to be a bad thing though. More guests are Infinito on "Pointless", Nizm and Prime on "Aggression", Foul Intalekt, Kenetic Wisdom and Ndvisual over the dark and seven years ago inspired "Vulgar", and Robust on "Untitled", where the crackles are also making this less than a demo, while the battle verses again reign supreme, with some words getting mumbled though.
One of the few songs that doesn't speak braggadocios verses is the title track "A Prelude To Nothing", where Verbal speaks about some of what's troubling him. This is another one of the few solo tracks, as is "The Movie Song". And here Verbal does the good art of incorporating movie titles in his verse. And what other peoples have done before, Verbal might just do even much better, as he puts 'em in story parts, running through a thousand and more titles, giving you as many 'aaaah, reeewwwwwinnnndddd' moments, as do his battle tracks. Finally there's "That Love Shit", a track that consists of two parts. Part one is reading the Verbal composed Valentine card, minus the mush and plus the reality. That's why there's part two, where Verbal then flips the script to get his player steez on.
Unfortunately the quality of some of the recordings is not worthy of the skill these tracks want to broadcast. At worst, it's just bad. But at best this gives it a certain rough and rugged charm, that lets us think of spontaneous underground cipher recordings, or old radio dub tapes.
review: tadah
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