Mr. Lif & Akrobatik – “Resolution” (Album Review)

The second collaborative LP by Perceptionist emcees Mr. Lif and Akrobatik comes at a darker or as dark a time as their first (Black Dialogue) did back in 2005, when fresh wounds from 9/11 and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were still bleeding heavily with just about no signs of abating. Along with DJ Fakts One and El-P playing major producer roles on their Definitive Jux debut, Lif and Ak delivered a fine combination of conscious cool hip-hop to enlighten and refresh the people. Twelve years later, Mr. Lif and Akrobatik return together again to release their sophomore in a like ravaged era of war, confusion and economic malaise, this time without Fakts One or Def Jux but with a new assortment of beat makers for the one and only Mello Music Group. It’s safe to say that what they’ve turned out, the Resolution LP, is a clear confident statement set to thoroughly enjoyable music.

Our heroes of rhyme pull the pants down on the one percent, corporations, the government in collusion with both and just the greedy, brutal and violent, problematic police included, in ghetto settings especially, where they seem to do most of their dirt. Lif and Akrobatik have energy and conviction, with many relatable messages one after the other, meaning they know what they’re saying to be true. In “Lemme Find Out,” the two raise suspicions of technology and the huge part it plays in everyone’s life, and “When Push Comes To Shove” makes time for the necessary elements of romance.

With no truly dull moments, Resolution does reveal spots not as attention-grabbing as others. The proceeding trio of tracks, “Let’s Battle,” “Free At Last” and “Dirty Drumz,” while good for advancing the spirit of competition, self-determination and real hip-hop, feels more like a connector of the beginning and end than a bridge or bond with material equally awesome as what sandwiches it. The dynamic duo nevertheless manage to make their finale as splendid as anything preceding it. Lif and Ak rap on something everybody’s been guilty of at one time or another – control obsession – in “Grab Hold” sharing that there’s no end or win when you’re trying to grab hold of what you can’t control.

Supported by a calming backdrop of smooth jazz and soul, the last two songs, “A Different Light” and “Resolution,” are beautiful commitments of the mind about surviving hard times in the first and pure thoughts on everything from optimism, wisdom and positivity to compassion, perseverance and care in the second. Instead of junk food rap, try Resolution, which offers healthy artistic beat-creations from the likes of Willie Evans Jr., Synesthetic Nation and Paten Locke and which doesn’t stoop to name-calling, foul play or debauchery thanks to Mr. Lif and Akrobatik’s dedication to spreading the good word and nothing but. The New Year’s celebrations of 2017 are long past but it’s never too late to make a resolution, or a revolution for that matter. (4 out of 5 stars)

Nitty Scott – “Creature!” (Album Review)

Robust mami of rhythmic rhyme, Nitty Scott, from Michigan, and Florida… and Brooklyn, returns with her second studio album, Creature, building onto her cool conscious catalog, which includes last year’s Westside Highway Story collaboration with Joell Ortiz and Bodega Bamz, her studio debut The Art of Chill from 2014, and a trio of mixtapes before that. Acclaimed for her authentic emceeing and soul on wax, Scott releases the long awaited Creature on the newly minted Indigenous Digital and in it rides for ethnic pride and independent womanhood on real spit and varying production-treats.

Bumping dance beats, female- and Latin/Afro-pride, just a little Caribbean flavor but plenty kindness for her people paint the top of Creature with colorful hues, if only for a section of the listening public. Scott does as one would expect in songs “Pxssy Powah,” the mildly political “Don’t Shoot!” and the drug-laden “Kaleidoscopes!” She comes with resolve and power though, even if she drifts into filler and braggadocio or sounds like Nicki Minaj in her title track though it’s unlikely that she consciously tried to relive her “Monster”-remake moment in the latter.

Nevertheless, this vibrant Creature has heart and spirit, especially when Nitty Scott is rapping nice and quick. Only some will relate to everything Scott raps about and what greets the ears is nothing very challenging to the status quo. Still, Creature excels because of its array of rap-, song- and music-textures, providing a nice experience if essentially a new spin on select trends. Nitty Scott does well in the satisfying set, but it’s probably wise to not immediately classify this creature as any new species of hip-hop music. (3 out of 5 stars)

Kristoff Krane – “Kairos, Pt. 1” (Album Review)

With Minneapolis artist and emcee Kristoff Krane and his music, you either listen casually and then go back to the matrix of big industry rap (the wrong reaction) or… you fall to the floor in awe of discovering another unique, progressive rapper – the correct reaction. A new guardian of rap music, rising from his powerful projects from the mid to late 2000s and into the 2010s, Krane (or Christopher Keller) comes with positivity and useful messages with his “stream-of-consciousness” flowing, and musically and instrumentally he is far from a novice. Krane’s latest, Kairos Pt. 1, is his fifth solo album, released on F I X, and produced by Graham O’Brien. Mostly serious, quite witty at times but deeply philosophical and reflective with spades of metaphors, Kairos 1 finds Krane vastly more allegorical than before but no less sharp or insightful.

On the positive side, Krane has an energy and a charging force that resolves to focus on good and keep moving. On the other hand, his voice here sometimes finds meaningfulness in the meaningless, and the hopeless, expressing the colorfully moving, knockabout thoughts of a worried mind and a restless conscience. The style then pairs like a match made in nirvana with O’Brien’s drum-rackety tracks coupled with airy overlays and echoey voice filtering for a very mixed-terrain soundscape. Krane can be unsettling, and unsettled, same goes for the music. Still, what might be the greatest treasure is the man’s impressive exhibition of flow, his various speeds and cadences, and voice stretching. Technically, he’s challenged his vocal abilities more so here than ever before, as his fluid and seamless yet excitingly articulated delivery is put to exquisite use, in a variety of modes.

What’s lacking is rigidity, but that’s a good thing in this case. Krane and O’Brien’s measures are melded, interconnected with nary a blip or pause. Certain bars and lines are repeated for emphasis, sometimes in a chorus-capacity, other times not, blended and tucked in in such a way that Krane seems to challenge classic rap song structure. Likewise, segues to soft singing sections are super smooth. The album’s several repeated lines — mantras, or recurring thoughts of the narrator in another sense — are very telling. Krane is puzzled by circumstances reiterating the line, “how in the world did it come to this?” and portrays denial with “I’m not my thoughts” but he’s also optimistically directed with the refrain, “till everybody is free,” truly showcasing different mental turns throughout the LP.

A few genius song pieces emerge as particularly stunning, though the entire project shines effusively (don’t get me wrong). The murder of one element of mother nature at the top of “Head Stone” is brilliant and unforgettable – maybe a commentary on climate change even. The mixed thoughts on religion and criminality in “Forgiven Blood” and “Confession” never lead to hardline stance-taking but they equally examine inquisition versus faith, and law-breaking versus rule-bending respectively, recognizing that each side of either duality offers something important to consider.

Like all of Kristoff Krane’s previous releases, Kairos Pt. 1 is thoroughly and incredibly pleasing with plenty to think about, wonderful lyrical wizardry, and a drenching of mood-befitting background music. The fun is in pondering and interpreting, to an emotive soundtrack, the myriad analogies and creative messaging that the rap-and-rapping-expert in Krane has crafted for us. In this way, these talks are obviously not formatted in everyday casual wording or conversation-style speech but what we have is another amazing load of intellectual art-rap from Krane’s free associative mind, an audio amusement park of verbal textures, ideas and sounds, and a great time for those who live and die for advanced hip-hop music. (5 out of 5 stars)

Hip Hop Album Reviews, Week Ending June 30, 2017

Five-star album alert! And it’s not because of 4:44, the new album by you-know-who. The end-of-June/beginning-of-July weekend is blessed by Crooked, the new set by fresh LA emcee Propaganda, whose music is the opposite of propaganda as a matter of fact.

Crooked by Propaganda (Humble Beast Records)

Propaganda (Jason Petty) from Los Angeles has never been the type of Christian rapper to namedrop the “Lord” every two or three bars or rap a lot of vague statements of faith. Instead, he opts for profound reflection on the conflicting issues at the center of human existence in his music. In this day and age where emcees of God run the gamut from loosely religious (Kanye West) to joyfully ecclesiastic (Chance The Rapper) to zealously devout (Lecrae and most others) to clearheaded and truly concerned (O’hene Savant), Propaganda is another different breath of fresh air in the field, focusing on the types of core problems that Jesus himself would actually focus on if he were here today.

Prop’s new LP, Crooked, is a multifaceted examination of human troubles and another unique addition to his growing discography. And it’s comprehensive, going through a ton before it’s all over. Going along with the theme of the album title, “Crooked Ways” intros by testifying to incredibly terrible contradictions, tragedies and inconsistencies in society and basically how ridiculous things are currently. Propaganda raps like a highly skilled poet so it’s no wonder he’s excellent at spoken word. “It’s Complicated” does just that on the topics of self-betrayal and refusal to love who we are on the inside in exchange for ugly masks picked by you decide.

Riding along on super smooth production that’s hardly generic as a pleasant surprise, Prop continues rocking us, with thoughts on the West and the Ultra Right at odds with the rest of the world (“Cynical”), hip-hop music how it was and how it was easier to fall in love with in earlier times (“Slow Cook”), a native’s love for Southern California (“Do Know Wrong”), and the shaky reasons for and results of gentrification (“Gentrify,” feel the light salsa music tinge in the beat there). Next comes a big one, the interlude-like “I Hate Cats.” Propaganda shows how racism and bigotry are like how some people claim to hate cats and think dogs are better, in this outstanding analogy, which really proves how pathetic the phenomenon of hate actually is.

The content never steps down from being as loaded as Prop can make it. “Darkie” looks at the self-consciousness of “colored” people and how inferiority complexes are common in them if embroiled in a white skin preferring culture. The climax of Crooked in many rights, “It’s Not Working (The Truth)” is then a meditation on segregation, poverty and alienation of the powerless have-nots and it also seems to ask toward the end if we will feel better if things do change, a bit nihilistic to this end yes but deep, exploratory and inclusive of both sides of the issue indeed, plus Propaganda might be alluding to the imperfection of a perfect civilization – what would there be to fix, to motivate us to fight for better in life in that situation? The bottom line is there’s a lot of work to be done as things are right now.

Compared to typical mainstream matter, the wind-down of the album starting with “Andrew Mandela” feels like so much more than a wind-down, as its inspirations include civil rights and democracy in the face of injustice, hard motherhood and athlete drug abuse, a truly wonderful change on earth that is yet to come, and the fact that we can’t judge what we’re not or have never been – just some of Prop’s final thoughts in this section. Through Crooked, Propaganda gives us the gift that keeps on giving – wisdom, and although he never gets too heavy, he no doubt provides plenty to think about across many a repeat spin. If you really want to know what it’s like to be conscious and caring and hopefully be inspired to become those things yourself, head straight to Crooked. Stay woke everyone. (5 out of 5 stars)

4:44 by Jay-Z (Roc Nation)

How does the average person feel about a classically fine hip-hop emcee who seems to become a bigger business mogul with each successive album? However the media tell them to. “Jigga” Jay-Z is not only that but he continues to make each of his new albums look larger than life via special promotion strategies and release methods. 4:44, Jay’s new album for 2017 and his thirteenth solo LP overall, is the Roc-A-Fella leader’s first to be dropped exclusively on his Tidal online music service since the streaming source opened in 2014, marking a milestone in his music career and a watershed moment in how the face and brand of Hov are shared with and viewed by the public.

Jay’s last album, Magna Carta Holy Grail, was not delivered on Tidal. In 2013, that one was given away as a digital download but only to Samsung customers, forcing folks without Samsung to pirate it in order to listen in before its wide release came some days later. Similarly, 4:44 is being offered only to Sprint customers and those Tidal subscribers who signed up for the service well before June 30. If you wanted to listen to the album on the 30th without having Sprint and without having signed up for Tidal in time, you had to tune in to iHeartRadio at certain time slots during the day and only on that day. Sound exclusive? Yes indeed. Too exclusive for what the album actually offers? Yes.

How and why can Jay-Z keep his art so private, and is it right? Is it appropriate? If it’s not easy to get, won’t few have it in their hands at the end of the day? Maybe but remember that Jay-Z has all the wealth-begotten pull and clout to get the mainstream marketing machine on his side to make anything he issues look like the best thing since sliced bread. He’s doing it now with Sprint to get more paid subscribers to Tidal plus that good Sprint money, just like in 2013, but for that good Samsung money back then. The journey to jump through some hoops to get the new music might have been worth it for Magna Carta Holy Grail but it’s not the case with 4:44. It’s an average album and one might as well wait for its wide release to peep it. At the moment, Jay-Z and his associates are basically just using the idea of a great album to collect more revenue from patrons of their stores, on the web or otherwise. Like it or not, it might be working because of the good to very good reviews it’s received so far, unless the consumer is properly informed that is…

Produced nicely and soulfully by artisan beat specialist No ID, 4:44 has its moments, as cliched as that sounds, however it’s an expectable product from Jay-Z. The forty-seven year old rhymer, businessman, husband and now father of three dangles in front of us a slim ten tracks of casual thoughts and more than some pop culture soap opera clocking in at a little over thirty minutes. Vocally, it never gets very comprehensive or deep philosophically, and Jay-Z, in some of his most laid-back spitting ever, is less spirited than his early-career self. He takes turns saying things appealing to all and other things appealing to only a select few, tapering off toward the end with filler instead of building where the album needs it.

Personal to an extent but politically lacking if not politically truant altogether, the thing has Jay getting tender at various points about his daughter(s), motherhood, memories and something akin to a society in society at the end, but he’s also cynical in rapping about unfaithful fans and traitorous friends in “Kill Jay-Z” and “Caught Their Eyes.” Likewise the rich man in the rap-capitalist cannot escape from his bars. In “The Story of OJ,” Jay raps at no little length about his real estate investments and property values over time, but who’s itching to hear about that besides the Trumps of the world? Shouldn’t Jay be discussing racism and upward mobility there more so than his own business endeavors? Isn’t that what the song title suggests? Also in “Family Feud” are some comments on excessive wealth that are intended to be light but are far from. Jay raps of “no such thing as an ugly billionaire, I’m cute” (wrong) and “what’s better than one billionaire? Two” (wrong again).

At one point, within the stuttering, slow quiet drill-frills and sampled soul vocals of “Smile,” Jay mentions that it’s just the way of the world that there are drug dealers and jewel dealers of blood diamonds and whatever else. He’s saying he’s okay with it, that he doesn’t care too much about it. Talk about laissez-faire. This impartiality to inequality and crime is a turnoff. What’s also a turnoff in an inexcusable way is the famous “4:44”/apology-to-Be-for-messing-around song. It’s all very well and good for what it can do but if Jay did in fact cheat on his wife (it could be a made-up tabloid story), apologizing doesn’t change the fact that it happened. Infidelity is not ok as long as you say sorry afterward.

In short, 4:44 doesn’t have the power, spark or duration that previous Jay-Z albums have, and of course, if Roc Nation is still in bed with Universal or one of the other majors, that goes a long way in explaining its adoration for rags-to-too-many-riches and the other indecencies that are flapped about on the project. Plus Jay-Z is getting quite a bit older, AND he has little kiddos now so he should be more socially responsible with his words than he is here, and if not for them then for the tens, hundreds of millions if not a billion or more he speaks to through the music. So much more good could have been done for humankind had this album contained better messages. (1 out of 5 stars)

Hip Hop Album Reviews, Week Ending June 9, 2017

We here at SwurvRadio are not afraid to play hard ball with hard-to-learn rap acts that seem to do the same things over and over again but we’re also honest about where they’re going wrong and how they need to shape up because there’s always something substantial about them that leads us to review their projects in the first place. And being the benevolent sort we are, we only want to tell them and their fans the truth to see them think and hopefully grow. Why butter them up and mislead them, even if only to save face? Again and still, we must also bring up the positives in their features so before we begin to stall, let us start.

Known Unknowns by Billy Woods (Backwoodz Studioz)

The best album of the week, Known Unknowns by NYC rapper Billy Woods, is the typical product one would expect from the alternative underground one from the East Coast and despite not blowing us away with flash, controversy or a bang in the production, all of Woods’ wordplay, clever metaphors and concepts, and interesting assorted music (mainly by producer Blockhead) give K.U. a leg up in the ratings. Smart, left-field art rap is put to use for political and social commentary, making subjects of police at a rap show, the people of porn, rapper rankings and surveillance among several other topics.

The production is lowkey yet quite marvelous for an artistic variety of beats, mixed flavors of music and new sample sources – Nirvana, a few others. Known Unknowns is a geek’s cup of tea though. Instead of all the nerdy scatterbrained thought processes, free-styling and random poetry slams and such, Woods might desire to give his messages – and he has many – directly, to the point and undressed for more effective results, but if you’re looking to spend a good chunk of time to really study lyrics, knock yourself out with this album for sure. (3 out of 5 stars)

Take It Back by Showbiz & A.G. (DITC Records)

As another new offering from the recently reborn DITC Studios set up by none other than NYC’s beloved Diggin’ In The Crates crew, Take It Back is also the latest LP from fine Golden Age duo Showbiz & AG. There hasn’t been a great deal of evolution in AG’s rapping, which still to this day promotes the basic essentials of emceeing, un-rushed, careful, and even though it’s honestly a delight to hear boombap of the smooth agreeable type from Showbiz’ pro hand, Take It Back truly and staunchly takes it back to the heyday of the group. It’s a time capsule, not really a step up.

In the first half, some gangster notes (believe it or not) dissolve later in and open up to friendlier topics of love, traveling and the world, with nice little stories and light wisdom scattered throughout. At the end of the day however, the album is nothing innovative or cutting edge for fans, just some pretty solid rapping from two legends looking to get back in the game after a five or so year hiatus, though they likely won’t get the same places they sat in in the late ‘80s and early to mid ‘90s. (3 out of 5 stars)

The Uncanny Adventures of Watson & Holmes by Blacastan & Stu Bangas (Brick Records)

Seasoned Hartford, CT emcee Blacastan has done it again with producer Stu Bangas, releasing his second collaboration LP with the beatmaker, The Uncanny Adventures of Watson & Holmes, the sequel to their Watson & Holmes album from 2014. Blacastan is no doubt an accomplished rapper and member of Army of the Pharaohs and the Demigodz, with a sizable catalogue of solid releases, but despite that and despite the fierce upright wordplay in the bars topping Stu Bangas’ brutal boombap, there are obvious problems with this Uncanny set, and this is WITH Blacastan playing the rap version of the detective Holmes in one bright concept moment within the mix.

The LP is very little besides weak gangster rap, smothering murder raps and immature barbaric sex rhymes, all in the backpack style of vocalism of course. The lyrics never leave behind those rough coarse textures giving us no deep mission, meaning or message at any point to learn from. Stu and Blacastan both have considerable histories in the music and TUAWH is a decent lesson in intricate advanced rhyme composition but it’s dragging its heels in the past in failing to move forward with greater, useful subject matter. (1 out of 5 stars)

Hip Hop Album Reviews, Week Ending June 2, 2017

Since there are two legends (Wise Intelligent and Kool G Rap) releasing albums this week, each with vastly different moral character, this start to June 2017 presents a very good seminar on the dignity-divisions that still exist in the rap music game today. If the veterans aren’t even on the same page as far as scruples and decency are concerned, how can the majority of new artists coming up now be expected to start a movement for more substance, principles and values in the lyrics? A discussion is in order but that’s far from all it will take for a change. Caught in between the two, rising Brooklyn emcee Latasha Alcindor is the middle of the debate with material that favors the artistic and progressive side of the aisle in her latest project. Overall it’s been a solid week.

Game of Death by Gensu Dean & Wise Intelligent (Mello Music Group)

If February’s BlueKluxKlan wasn’t enough of PRT’s Wise Intelligent for you then you’re in luck because he and alternative producer Gensu Dean just dropped a joint album, Game of Death, on respected label Mello Music Group to boot. This is no doubt the main attraction this June 2nd, with Wise upholding black culture and showing great concern for the health and integrity of hip-hop music on it, as he exposes the escalating phenomenon of wack, bad-influence rappers pushed by the mainstream system. And he does it to Dean’s professionally crafted joints of psych rock, folk, soul and electronica plus enhancing backup sound bites.

Not only an attack on the shady industry model, G.O.D. has a love component by Wise that buffers the criticism and rebuke. Despite lesser rappers’ cowardice, Wise has love for all rappers, even the sucker rappers (can’t really call them sucker MC’s because a lot of them aren’t technically emcees to begin with), since they are the offshoot and result of foundation-laying by him and other Golden Age greats. Also “Ooh Wee (Shakiyla Pt.4)” has Wise depicting sex not lewdly or raunchily but as intimate love-making with his spirit-mate, as involved and meaningful, not simply as f*cking. In a nutshell, GOD succeeds because of neat quick spitting on useful important topics over artistic musical beats. (4 out of 5 stars)

Teen Nite at Empire by Latasha Alcindor (self-released)

Brooklyn artist and rapper Latasha Alcindor, found in workshop, concert, and music by Sammus, Radamiz and others, issues her retail debut during an upswing in her career and at a time when the feminine spark is still very much needed in hip-hop. Teen Night at Empire has all the verve, spunk, strength, spirit, flyness, vocal fashion and yes even fight (the good kind) that Alcindor has developed a reputation for over the last few years in her songs. This new output of emotions and charging resolve is distinct for ‘90s throwback loops atop most prominently then crystal clear, ambient chords later in, no doubt from the greatest that modern studio mastering and expert craftsmanship have to offer. Latasha speaks on typical emcee fare – braggadocio, memories, etc. – but what she has to say in this set are things not extremely dire to talk about, mainly common notes and thoughts from her own life important to her above all else. Teen Nite is still a creative piece though, original LA yet influenced by the greats with some nice creativity on the production end. (3 out of 5 stars)

Return of the Don by Kool G Rap (Clockwork Music/Full Mettle)

There’s not much more to say about Queens Golden-Ager Kool G Rap at this point, especially with a new LP (his fifth solo one, eighth overall) of banal mafioso rap. The gangster emcee from the legendary Juice Crew with Big Daddy Kane, Biz Markie, Roxanne Shanté, Masta Ace and Craig G (and the rest) is hiding his desire for big money numbers, fame and celebrity in the Return of the Don album with talk about his music not being gangster rap but “reality” rap (*denial*) and one of his guests saying he’ll leave the teaching to KRS-One, plus he’s literally hiding behind a sizable number of big, equally gangster guest-rappers on it. It’s simply nothing more than violent brutal street rap that’s sometimes women-hating and women-using and never deeply intelligent or intellectual outside of the rhyming and spitting craft. More than some skillfully conceived wordplay recited expertly is the only attribute worth studying here – even producer MoSS’s nothing-new boombap compositions are hardly exciting – so the music and the lowdown dirty pastimes and preoccupations do a lot of damage to the dangerously distinguished don on Return. (1 out of 5 stars)

Hip Hop Album Reviews, Week Ending May 19, 2017

Yeah both Snoop Dogg and Biggie (with Faith Evans) have albums dropping today, but if you take a sample of each, you can tell there’s a lot of fluff there. They’re largely intended to be money grabs for Doggystyle Records and Warner Music. That leaves The God Box by rapper/producer David Banner and Renaissance by The Underachievers as the main foci for now. Not bad but also not fab, both have their assets yet not without issues too.

The God Box by David Banner (A Banner Vision)

Member of late ‘90s duo Crooked Lettaz (with Kamikaze) and solo artist David Banner has been quite active since 2000 though after his 2010 Death of a Pop Star collab with 9th Wonder, Banner took time off until starting what has been long coming but is finally here – The God Box, the Mississippian’s sixth LP as an individual act. To unpackage this God Box is to reveal angry rage at racism and racist policy, but with some quieter discussion points as well. Banner has crafted a collection that fluxes and ebbs on various levels musically and vocally.

Banner targets societal racism yet he can sound a bit so himself using the word “cracker” to refer to whites twice or so in “Magnolia” and somewhat irrationally complaining that whites are stealing or taking rap and hip-hop from blacks in “Elvis.” Pretty ridiculous. If you’re dope, you’re dope, doesn’t matter what color your skin is. Likewise skin color just isn’t a factor in how good or bad an artist is. Moving on, we come to Banner’s women studies. He looks at what in women we are drawn to mentally and physically via “Cleopatra Jones,” how good black men should step up to claim their good black women in “Marry Me” and also the case of the fickle girl who ostensibly gets her way with everything in “Judy Blare.”

Next are some tough gangster-ish notes (“Traffic on Mars”), “Black Fist”-raising, more race talk of course (“AK” and “Evil Knievil”) and some wisdom and calls to get on the clean path of life (“Wizdom Selah” and “Burning Thumbs”). Sonically and structurally speaking, God Box is a handsome statue, or silhouette, to behold so to say. By a small margin, this is the most rebellious and conscious Banner has ever attempted to be and he’s pulled it off, even if his material is mostly race focused and much more sociopolitical than socioeconomic in nature. The main problem is that David Banner has framed his issues as white versus black when really they should be framed as racism versus truth issues at the core. Still, The God Box is in depth and dynamic and explores some new hotly charged topics for the seasoned Banner and guests. (3 out of 5 stars)

Renaissance by The Underachievers (RPM MSC Distribution)

For their third studio album, Brooklyn Underachievers AK and Issa Gold really have underachieved in regards to not always keeping honor in their sentiments and not building onto their past work. The new project, titled Renaissance, is worth a listen or two because the guys bring good wordplay and some useful talking points, but there’s a lack of variety in the boom-bap music production and sections in the second half really contradict what the emcees have usually been all about.

Especially at the top and into the midpoint, AK and Issa continue to be about knowledge and using the mind in new expansive ways but in “Any Day,” track ten of fifteen, they begin to truly give us reason to believe they’re still boys instead of young men with lines like “baby, no I ain’t tryna bride-and-groom ya, when I say recruit ya, I’m just tryna screw ya” and “don’t try to test us, we resort to violence.” Later they’re cold, distant thugs and womanizers in song fourteen “Final Destination” as they “load the clip with sixty rounds” and “kick b*tches out like Pam.”

Renaissance is a pretty large departure, in decency and growth, from these Underachievers’ last two LPs. It’s not a complete disaster, but the boys bring nothing new to the table with it. Their open mindedness toward experimenting with drugs has been replaced by pretty much just booze and weed only, there is as we’ve mentioned a substantial gangster component disturbingly enough and the vast majority of the songs sound basically the same. Yes the Underachievers have a message or two in store but their careless formula-following and damaging shenanigans do hold them back a great deal. (2 out of 5 stars)