"When everybody though I was insane, I stood tall after all of the pain"....."I left my mark on the game" If anyone can atest to that it's Xzibit and B-Real; who both lay down some hard lving verses on this guitar led joint. It might be a bit too consciously going for a pop market with Statick Selectah emplyoing a soaring vocal approach (curtousey of Demrick) but I'm not complaining as that hard core rap sound is clear enough, if it gets radio/club play I'll be first in the mosh pit.
Black Milk has a new album coming out that you can check over on
Pitchfork as a stream before pre-release.
Interpret Sabotage is a rapid fire track over some nice spacey synths with a luscious sounding hook from Mel; lyrics bringing that David & Goliath type feeling of trying to maintain and become successful.
Deoins house is a nice retrospective on the positive influence of matriachars in different situations; bringing hiphop for the family...one your gran could vibe out to.
Codes and Cab fare is a pretty slow burning spacey affair and features a Black Thought verse which I was excited to check but unfortunately underwhelms a little bit as being full of contradictory non-sequiters. Ive probably missed something there so will come back in a few years and re-evaluate!
Ghetto Demf features Quelle Chris and from a start point of not knowing what DEMF stands for it probably means I m not remotely qualified to write about it. Starts off with some thugged out gun talk but contextualises by describing the rough environment from which this stems. Vibing it out to it I realise this is not one to be over-analysed, its some thugged out pimp party shit that I wish I still loved as much as I used to; still wilding out though!
Sonny Junior (Dreams) is a great piece of music production with some lovely sax rolling through a hypnotic heavy drum pattern.
Sunday's Best is a real nice track to relax to; its a shame there isnt an extended version to play first thing of a morning, even though the critical stance it takes on religion and society means it may open up more of a debate than you'd bet on.
Monday's Worse snaps us out of the good times to more sombre, sobre rhymes but the Motown sounding hook brings the track a classic sound.
Perfected on Puritan Ave is one of my favourites with a reflective description of Milk's formative surroundings. Love the lyrics, just couldnt quite deal with the instrumental breakdown towards the end of the track.
Dismal envokes the mood you might expect; very brooding and menacing, I got a bit freaked out and zoned out of this one to be honest.
Parrallels ft Ab is one of the 'talking to the ladies' tracks; sounds good but I never feel I can comment on these as Im never a fan in general.
X Chords is another nice instrumental that leads into the clattering beat of
Black Sabbath which features some haunting vocals from Tone Trezure;
Money Bags brings back that hard hiphop swagger to an album that is very enjoyable and atmospheric. As a rap fiend I would have preffered more vocals but as a musical project its pretty great.
Menagerie member and show rocker alongside the Small Gods, Dizraeili has joined forces with Downlow for this new mixtape. First track Rise is an absolute belter. Do You is a family tree of influence though youth that leads into an impressive history of living for hiphop in the face of adversity whilst maintaining an inspirational amount of positivity. Minny the Moocher kicks off with some amaxing crowd hyping and DJ skill flexing, Dizraeli kicking rhymes making himself a new CV; "I am Cardinal Hume" in impressive style. I've been playing the Mixtape on rotation ever since, and rather delay any further just gonna post this up with one question....Can you dig it?
