Review: Atmosphere’s The Family Sign

The Family Sign (Rhymesayers)

Track listing:

01. My Key
02. The Last to Say
03. Became
04. Just For Show
05. She’s Enough
06. Bad Bad Daddy
07. Millenium Dodo
08. Who I’ll Never Be
09. I Don’t Need Brighter Days
10. Ain’t Nobody
11. Your Name Here
12. If You Can Save Me Now
13. Something So
14. My Notes

A return from Minneapolis outfit Atmosphere after their double EP last year - and first LP in three years - sees the release of The Family Sign out to their loved ones, friends and fans.

The eerie electric start to this album puts a Gravediggaz edge to the album. Sharp and dissecting rhyme spits from Slug fall from the lips of Slug, not entirely unlike those of the Wu fraternity. A vivid scenery is painted through the album with the instrumentals from touring musicians Nate “The Guitar Man” Collis and Erick Anderson on the keys.

On ‘The Last Say’ the dark side of the domestic front over a simple howling guitar sets the lyrics apart and puts this LP on a much more serious note. The beat is raised and tempo more flowing as the album goes in introducing a new wave of distorted guitar instrumentals and MPC drum patterns to the fabric of Ant’s ASR-born production behind the head-nodding hits ‘Just For Show’ and ‘She’s Enough’ which proves to be a real live show stopper.

All in all this album has more of a live feel about it, a musicality too large and in charge to be contained within a CD. But this will make listeners buy a ticket to see how the Atmosphere raises the humidity at a live show.

By Rip Nicholson   //   411@hiphop.sh

Review: Pegz’s Drama

Drama (Obese Records)

Track listing:
01. Capital P
02. One Day
03. Bombs Away
04. Deities of Def
05. Go To Your Head
06. Priceless
07. Crime in the City
08. What You In It For
09. Water Marks
10. Mad Bastards
11. Don’t Look Down
12. Fool’s Gold
13. Blind Man

When Pegz and co dropped the Gully Platoon LP he declared that he would retire from solo work. Well, consider new album Drama to be his Jordan-45 return from hiatus - and Pegz shows he’s still nice on the mic while he schools the new jacks of hip hop on some industry do’s and don’ts.

The OG drops knowledge on the smoothly-done ‘One Day’ beat by Chasm and is laid out before the melodic Syrene sprinkles over the hook alongside Ginger, who adds to the Jase-produced ‘Go To Your Head’. This very reverent soulful belter uses Merry Clayton’s ‘Southern Man’ to back Pegz ‘Don’t let the bullshit go to your head’ lesson.And further advice is administered on ‘Priceless’ as Pegz and the Gully Platoon give reminders to MCs over a head-banging M-Phazes beat.

M-Phazes also lends to ‘Crime In The City’ another M-Phazes-touched track done over a TV mystery theme, where he and Jace Excel wrap up the case in no time. ‘Bomb Away’ is the first single, produced by Simplex who gives it a Brazilian tan but by the end of the LP it’s not as stand out as the lyrical lashings from Dialectrix, Joe New and 2Buck on ‘Mad Bastards’ or Pegz doing a beat-jackers spit with Plutonic Lab on ‘Don’t Look Down’ or closing with Bobby Bland’s classic ‘Blind Man’ sample.

Pegz’ delivery of lines still strikes like an uppercut from Tyson. Musically, Drama retains the services of most producers from previous releases andand gives this one the same mood as Burn City or The Great Divide. So as expected for Pegz fourth album, Drama is as dope as the last LP.

By Rip Nicholson  //  411@hiphop.sh

Review: Drapht’s The Life Of Riley

The Life Of Riley (The Ayem Records/Sony)

Track listing:

Intro
Sing It (The Life Of Riley)
Down
Rapunzel
The Eulogy Feat. Briggs
RIP JR
Won’t Listen When
People Won’t Know
Bali Party Feat. N’Fa
Skit
Air Guitar
The Paul The Dan feat. Trials
Murder Murder
Take The Party With Us feat. Funkoars
Good Morning
We Own The Night feat. Mantra & Urthboy
On And On

The Life of Riley is ready to outshine and lay them all to rest this season. Instantaneously it feels like another classic Drapht record when his siren of a voice delivers over the introductory title track and finding a Trials-twisted old-time record to suit an old rap meant for Brothers Grimm, ‘Down’ is set free as day breaks on the fourth stunner from Perth’s Golden Boy’s new label The Ayem Records.

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Review: Ice Cube’s I Am The West

I Am The West
(Lench Mob/Intertia)

Track listing:

01. A Boy Was Conceived (Intro)
02. Soul On Ice
03. Life In California featuring Jayo, & WC
04. She Couldn’t Make It On Her Own introducing OMG & Dounghboy
05. Urbanian
06. Y’all Know How I Am featuring OMG, Dough Boy, WC, Maylay
07. Too West Coast featuring WC & Maylay
08. I Rep That West
09. Drink The Kool-Aid
10. No Country For Young Men
11. It Is What It Is
12. Hood Robbin’
13. Your Money Or Your Life
14. Nothing Like L.A.
15. All Day, Every Day
16. Fat Cat

Mike Epps is once again back to selling quarters because of Cube’s long waits between album drops. With his 9^th LP, I Am The West Cube returns to doing what he does best - gangbanging for the grape and gold, just in case you forgot which side he’s from.

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Review: Cut To The Chase

Cut To The Chase EP

Track listing:

01. Intro (Cut To The Chase) produced by Kurziv
02. Boxing Without Gloves produced by Harmz
03. Insanity produced by Engineer, Cuts by PT
04. The Real Deal (ft Dribbles, Lariken) produced by J Squared
05. Untouchable produced by Engineer
06. Leave Them In A Past Tense (ft. Illmaculate, DJ PT) produced by Engineer Cuts by PT
07. Interrupted Produced by J Squared
08. Living The Dream produced by J Squared
09. What Can I Say? produced by Rotten Produce

Adelaide MC, Chase Briton releases his first EP. The wordsmith is a multiple MC battle champ who has been on the grind since 2002 and the new 9-track EP Cut To The Chase is wasting no time in affirming his place.

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Review: Marques Houston’s 4th Album

Mr Houston (EMI)

Track listing:

I Love Her (w. Jim Jones)
Body
How I Do
Express Lane
Case of You
Stranger
Say My Name
Letter
Sexy Young Girl
Date
Beautiful Woman
Restaurant
Sunset
Excited
Tonight

Mr. Houston is the fourth solo album from L.A. Born R&B artist Marques Houston, or is it Omarion or Ne-Yo…. hard to tell them apart when he too is presented in a shiny suit and shades to match. The Immature artist has invited long-time producer Chris Stokes to eliminate any chance of his art maturing - a great start.

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Review: Torcha & B-Don’s Frozen State

Frozen State (Independent/Obese Records)

Track listing:

01. On the Map
02. Road Rage
03. Internet Age
04. Waiting
05. Smoke Circles
06. The Zone
07. Frozen State (ft. Hyjak & Feva)
08. Sacrelidge (ft. S.Q.Z.)
09. Perfect View (ft. 2furious)
10. Over the Limit (ft. Hyjak)
11. Ups and Downs
12. Walking Contradiction (ft. N’FA)
13. Cross That Line (ft. Listic)
14. Everybody Moves (ft. Bobby Kim & Buga Kingz)

Since Hyjak N Torcha’s 2004 start, veteran Torcha Chmielewski has been reinventing his relevance across Australian music and Frozen State is the latest drop – his third over the past 12 months. Collating elements from his previous A Broken Silence experiment and teaming with producer B-Don, Torcha embraces rock, soul and blues over hip hop beats through the album with feature spots by N’fa, SQZ and 2furious among others.

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Review: Illy’s Long Story Short

Long Story Short (Obese Records)

Track listing:

01 Generation Y
02 Black Cap Rap (w. Pegz)
03 Full Tank
04 My Way
05 Rock Star Shit
06 Pictures
07 This Or That
08 Our Country
09 Red Light Green Light (w. Spit Syndicate, Solo & Cisco Tavares)
10 Brother
11 For You (feat. Phrase & N’Fa)
12 Dumb It Down
13 Long Story Short (w. Cisco Tavares)
14 All Around The World (w. Kulaia)

First running solo artist Illy drops a real Crooked Eye release with J-Skub and M-Phazes sharing the board credits, both coming off Illy’s partner in rhyme Phrase’s Clockwork album to produce MelBurn City’s freshest long player for Obese. A late eighties baby, Illy brings his first album to the forefront of the next generation in Australian hip hop straight from the Plutonic Lab bubbling over, and the shit sounds fresher than crisp.

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Review: Bone Thugs’ Uni 5 The Prequel

Uni 5: The Prequel (Sony)

Track listing:

1. Nuff Respect
2. Toast 2 That
3. I Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere
4. Breakdown
5. Your Luv Is
6. Summer Luv
7. Com’mon, Com’mon (Get It Crackin’)
8. The Originators
9. Take It To The Street
10. 4 Tha Og’s
11. Struggle
12. Wuz Up World
13. When I Die
14. Thug Alwayz
15. We Workin’
16. Bone Thugs

Uni 5 highlights the reuniting of the fab five of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony with the addition of 11 year felon, Flesh-N-Bone. Producers Scott Storch and Swizz Beats among a lineup of Chamillionaire, Kanye West, Fat Joe and Will.i.am should make this massive album a definitive release for the outfit.

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Review: Kid Cudi’s Man On The Moon: The End Of Day

Man On The Moon: The End Of Day (Universal Motown)

Track Listing:
Act 1: The End Of The Day
1. In My Dreams (Cudder Anthem)
2. Soundtrack 2 My Life
3. Simple As…
Act 2: Rise Of The Night Terrors
4. Mr. Solo Dolo (Nightmare)
5. Heart Of A Lion (Kid Cudi Theme Music)
6. My World Ft. Billy Cravens
Act 3: Taking A Trip
7. Day N Nite (Nightmare)
8. Sky Might Fall
9. Enter Galactic (Love Connection Part 1)
Act 4: Stuck
10. Alive (Nightmare) Ft. Ratatat
11. Cudi Zone
12. Make Her Say Ft. Kanye West & Common
13. Pursuit Of Happiness (Nightmare) Ft. Mgmt & Ratatat
Act 5: A New Beginning
14. Hyyerrr Ft. Chip Tha Ripper
15. Up, Up & Away (The Wake & Bake Song)

Rap’s rookie out of Cleveland and Kanye’s protégé sets out on his maiden avante-garde voyage,and lands with his first album, Man On The Moon: The End Of Day. The intergalactic trip of MC/producer Kid Cudi flows colourfully in creative synthesis between he and Kanye’s hypomania genius, with fantastic arrangement of lo-fi electronica and scattered drum patterns picking up seemingly where 808s & Heartbreak left off.

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Review: Cross Bred Mongrels’ Certified Wise

Certified Wise (Obese)

Track listing:
01. The Original Mongrels
02. Hip Hop Life
03. No Interference
04. Another Chapter (feat. Mike Lez, Raph AL)
05. How We Roll (feat. Hons)
06. Certified Wise (feat. Simplex)
07. Bomb Shit
08. Party’s Never Over (feat. Reason)
09. Average Dope Smoker
10. Shoplifter
11. Cross Bred MF’s (feat. Konsyde, Mic Lez)
12. Killer Combination (feat. Mystro)
13. The True Underbelly
14. Open Letter
15. Record Biz

Cross Bred Mongrels has been a franchise of South Australia’s Certified Wise crew, allowing Hilltop’s DJ Debris to explore further his range of ability on production under Flee’s devouring lyrics and Flak’s gruff storytelling in a return to wax dropping new LP Certified Wise under Obese. Their latest output is a biting release over stripped-back New York slice beats.

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Review: Nas & Damian Marley’s Distant Relatives

Distant Relatives (Universal)

Track listing:

1. As We Enter
2. Tribal War (feat. K’Naan)
3. Strong Will Continue
4. Leaders
5. Wisdom
6. Count Your Blessings
7. Dispear
8. The Promised Land (feat. Dennis Brown)
9. In His Own Words
10. Nah Mean
11. Friends
12. My Generation (feat. Lil Wayne and Joss Stone)
13. Africa Must Wake Up (feat. K’Naan)

The homage both Nas and Damian Marley pay to Africa and its bloody history is laid out through this season’s highly anticipated Distant Relatives. The cross-genre pollination of ragga and rap blossoms beautifully here as a rapper with arguably the single-most defining hip hop album of all-time and the youngest of Bob Marley’s dynasty musically cultivate a new herbal strand of riddim and rhyme.

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Review: Gift Of Gab’s Escape 2 Mars

Escape 2 Mars(Quannum/Other Tongues)

Track listing:

1. Escape 2 Mars (intro)
2. El Gifto Magnifico
3. Light Years
4. Dreamin
5. In Las Vegas
6. Escape 2 Mars
7. Electric Waterfalls
8. Rich Man Poor Man
9. Some of the People
10. Spotlight
11. Rhyme Travel

Blackalicious efforts in the past are not unlike Gift of Gab’s latest drop, a funked-out soul ride bumping over evened hip hop beats on Escape 2 Mars. The musical outlay of this LP has been paralleled to that of Blazing Arrow and Nia, with one of the most heralded West coast rhyme-smiths joined by DNAEBEATS from the Bay Area aboard this spacey, synthesised P-Funk mothership revival.

‘El Gifto Magnifico’ racks up the first single and finds Gift Of Gab spitting calisthenics of verbiage left and right over a Latin organ but despite this, as it ascends through ‘Dreamin”, Del the Funky Homosapien and Brother Ali orbit Gab lyrically with half a sweat leaving the rapper stammering through bars over a robotic delivery of beats.

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Review: Spit Syndicate’s Exile

Exile (Obese Records)

Track listing:
01. Exile
02. Crooks and Crimescenes
03. Showtime (ft. Solo)
04. Exhale
05. Starry-Eyed
06. Pretty Girls Make Graves
07. Kings Only
08. Disruption
09. Table for Two
10. The Creditors (ft. Joyride)
11. Can’t Go Home (ft. Sarah Corry)
12. Contour Lines (ft. Solo)
13. Endgame

Remembering their minted debut album and how well the young duo were received, a maturity is felt in the title track with a laidback delivery from two lads in full swagger of good fuckin’ hip hop. This is the return of Spit Syndicate and their follow-up Exile – an LP that fronts as a passport for Jimmy Nice and Nick Lupi, well-travelled and heavily stamped.

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Review: Choose Mics’ Beggars Can’t Be Choosers

Beggars Can’t Be Choosers (Formula Recordz/Obese)

Track listing:

01 Sleepy Hollow (w. Bigfoot, The Heat & Buddha Bless)
02 Over It
03 Written In Stone (w. Eloquence & Tommy Ill)
04 Meditation (w. Brisbane Allstars)
05 Feeding Time
06 The Prefix (w. Tommy Ill)
07 Crunch Time (w. A-Diction)
08 Concrete Rap
09 Eyes Grow Tired (w. Scott Burns)
10 Get In Line

With one of the freshest beat makers on the Gold Coast in Mules, and Haunts on the rhymes, Choose Mics deliver their first album Beggars Can’t Be Choosers – an album brought with heat piping hotter than a debut should.

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