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| tracklisting |
| 1. Intro feat. Sam Yale |
| 2. I feat. Firewater |
| 3. Keep It Rockin' feat. Rayzor, Firewater, DJ Drez |
| 4. Fever feat. Scarub, Firewater |
| 5. Interlude feat. DJ Drez |
| 6. Do What We Do feat. Marlon James |
| 7. Our World feat. Dr. Oop, Firewater |
| 8. Interlude feat. DJ Drez |
| 9. Listen 2 Voice feat. Courtney, Bleu Collar |
| 10. Talk To Us feat. luckyiam.PSC |
| 11. Hustler feat. Rayzor, Castro, DJ Drez |
| 12. We Restless feat. 2mex, Knows, Firewater, DJ Drez |
| 13. Interlude feat. Rayzor |
| 14. Issue feat. Cypha7 |
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| Whenever an artist clutters his record with guest artists, it's an elaborate way of name dropping. That or we're all just one big happy family. In many ways it can be the latter when the West is putting out another record. Same here, if you just look at the number of guests, ranging
from Scarub to Dr.Oop to DJ Drez to luckyiam.PSC to 2mex to Cypha7. With Voice going a little over board when you realize that there's not one song on here where he is on his own. But the strength is in numbers. Here, there, everywhere. |
| And besides, what kinda twisted mind would complain about contributions from all these artists anyway? Exactly. So we're not the ones to complain when Scarub and Firewater are asked to bless the bouncy Twism produced "Fever". This is instant head nodding material.
What the emcees emphasize with good time rhyming that also gets a couple of blows out, like when Scarub declares "I'm not hardcore, I'm just hard to impress". More representing is done on "I" with Firewater, as well as with "Talk
To Us", which features the Living Legend luckyiam.PSC over a humble Am beat. |
| At the same time however, not all is just happy go lucky, but "Keep It Rockin'" is referring to keep on striving and to not give up. Not really that much on the message tip is "Listen 2 Voice" with Courtney
(singing) and Bleu Collar (rapping). But the song still offers lyrics of discussion and reflection. The struggle and strive then returns on "Hustler" with Rayzor, Castro and DJ Drez lending their talent to the song that's built on a good G. Bautista and J. Bautista beat, making this
one of the best songs on here. |
| Who also produced the posse cut "We Restless". Here 2mex, Knows and Firewater all step up to kick their rhymes that are not just, but mainly, rapping about reppin'. That's all done over a less than fierce beat, what
shows one side of the spectrum, while the other side goes as far as a disco shaker with "Our World", featuring Dr.Oop and Firewater. Here the three have a good time again and discuss weed and the desired results that appear when you consume
it. |
| Musically we also want to mention "Do What We Do", not just because of the double timing rhyming by Watson, what he pulls off well. But because the Castro beat is remembering a lot of the gritty funk that used to dominate the westcoast sounds. So in many ways this
reminds us of some g-ish, as well as of some street ish, showing another shade to Watson's output. Also on the musical side are two Interludes that give some exclusive light on DJ Drez, once again emphasizing the group effort feel of the record. And finally the drums are breaking quicker on "Issue"
the song that features Cypha7 over an excellent Beatverntriloquists beat with them reciting poetic verses. |
| What in all is fourteen songs, not counting the hidden two. And considering that the album is only fourteen songs deep, you need to question the decision to hide those extra ones. Especially as the album could use a little something something (and the second hidden cut finally does
something different, just like "Issue" did). Because while it is solid in the best of ways, that also means that there's few ups and downs. So you neither get too many outstanding songs, whereas this also doesn't really go below the level
of solid. But you struggle to really get a feel of what and who Voice is, cause too little is really distinct. Despite the good lyricism, etc. However there's nothing you want to criticize, you're happy and pleased, but you're hardly excited. |
| review: tadah |
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