Canadian Audiophile’s Reviews and News

March 11, 2010

Wu-Tang Clan – Return of the Wu & Friends

Filed under: 2010, hip hop, music, rap — Tags: , , — Jordan Richardson @ 9:39 am

As a collection of lost gems and retooled favorites, Return of the Wu & Friends is more an exhibition of the mixing skills of Mathematics and less a brand new album. Regardless, these 16 tracks stand as strong evidence of the Wu-Tang Clan’s excellence and of Mathematics’ skill as a DJ and producer and still deserves a spot in any Wu collection.

The clipped beats and horn-blasted deliciousness that has filled Wu-Tang records with sweet funk since 36 Chambers is all here, of course, but Mathematics really excels when he pairs beats with the skills of the respective MC. His ability to chop, scrape and dip the tone and mood of the track to meet the cadence of Method Man or GZA is a thing of beauty.

If there’s anything Mathematics knows, it’s how to surface the Wu-Tang Clan’s often haunting bars with clean, concise beats and mixes. The minimalistic quality to classic records like Enter the Wu-Tang has always been one of the more recognizable selling points to the Wu’s recognizable vibe, but Mathematics pulls out surprising bits and pieces of soul, funk, blues, and cinematic textures to match the smaller moments.

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October 10, 2009

KRS-One & Buckshot – Survival Skills

Filed under: 2009, conscious rap, hip hop, music, rap — Tags: , , — Jordan Richardson @ 7:02 am

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In an era of watery pop rap, it’s heartening to see KRS-One’s name on a record. And it’s even better to see his name alongside Buckshot’s, pulling two of hip-hop’s most qualified MCs together to work as one unit. With Survival Skills, Buckshot and KRS-One unleash a fleet of exceptional rhymes backed by solid production and some truly wicked guest spots.

The album, out on Duck Down Records, makes 15 for KRS-One and four for Buckshot. Survival Skills is almost like a tutorial, uncorking scads of advice and industry critique from two of the finest rappers in the business.

The lessons never stop throughout the album’s 14 diabolical cuts. It’s a lean, mean recording, totally lacking in mechanical filler and idiotic skit tracks that waste time and zap momentum.

Buckshot, the leader of Boot Camp Clik and member of Black Moon, works immaculately alongside KRS-One, elevating the excellence of each track through the value of his rapid-fire release and hassle-free confidence. KRS-One’s Bronx belligerence is in full effect, blowing through ridiculously slick verses with the assurance only a professional of his level can muster.

Production is handled by some of the most capable hands in hip hop, including Black Milk, Ill Mind, Marco Polo, Nottz, 9th Wonder, and Khrysis. The beats are polished and clean, with slight production tricks and minimal samples keeping things simple.

The range of guests spots is eyebrow-raising, to say the least, with underground superstar Immortal Technique tearing it apart on “Runnin’ Away” and Grammy winner Mary J. Blige adding her impeccable vocals to “The Way I Live.” Other guest stars include Talib Kweli, K’Naan, Slug of Atmosphere, and Pharoahe Monch.

Unlike some other hip hop records of late, however, the guest spots are never overpowering. Instead, Survival Skills is a record that keeps it basic; it’s about lyricism and the craft of rhyming, plain and simple.

Making their case against bland modern rap, Buckshot and KRS-One use Havoc’s efficient production to bring “Robot” to life. “Seems you can’t sing or rap these days without Auto-Tune in the back these days,” says Buckshot before introducing listeners to Roger Troutman.

“Oh Really” uses some nice old-school keys to set up a hot exchange of verses from Buckshot, KRS-One and Talib Kweli. And “Think of All the Things” allows the always interesting K’Naan a little time with the masters.

Overall, Survival Skills is as good a hip hop album as you’re likely to hear this year if purity and skill are your top priorities. KRS-One and Buckshot never fade into the background and never turn down an opportunity to open minds and rock beats. It’s a sleek, crisp, well turned-out record that marks a strong step in the right direction for a genre that often suffers from flavorless efforts.

October 5, 2009

Mack 10 – Soft White

Filed under: 2009, gangster, hip hop, music, pop, rap, west coast — Tags: , , — Jordan Richardson @ 9:58 am

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While I was listening to Mack 10’s Soft White, I couldn’t help but wonder if gangsta rap was still relevant.

Discussing the lifestyles of inner city and urban youth, gangsta rap found its start in the late 1980s with guys like Ice-T and groups like N.W.A. telling shocking stories from the streets. With a healthy resentment for law enforcement, gangsta rap told the truth with respect to the experiences of many inner city youth.

But as times changed, so too did the impact of gangsta rap. With the East Coast/West Coast feud in the rear-view mirror, rap moved more into the mainstream and away from the violent imagery of artists like Tupac and Biggie. Part of the appeal of some of the great 1990s gangsta rap was that it sat well outside of the pop mainstream; it was dangerous and your parents would kill you for listening to it.

By the late 1990s, though, a shift took place. “Bling-bling” was introduced, sample-heavy backing tracks became the flavor of the day, and most rappers began to celebrate the acquisition of wealth rather than protesting the squalor of the inner city.

And then, before you could say “G-Unit,” gangsta rap wasn’t outside the mainstream anymore. Gangsta rap was the mainstream.

Some artists still try to sit outside the softened edges of gangsta pop and some have brought their history with them in hopes of boosting their credibility.

Mack 10 is one such artist. At 38-years-old, he’s got several years behind him in the rap game. Since his debut in 1995, Mack 10 has been associated with WC and Ice Cube in Westside Connection and has steadily represented the West Coast while other rappers followed the mainstream’s flow right into watered-down, pop-rap territory.

Soft White, Mack 10’s ninth solo record and first in about four years, finds the rapper getting personal while refusing to abandon the swagger of the streets. With a mix of California beats and Southern-fried tang, the record is about what you’d expect musically.

As personal as Mack 10 gets on tracks like “Mirror Mirror” and “It’s Your Life,” Soft White stumbles thanks to too many guest spots. It takes all of three full songs to get Mack 10 in the spotlight for the first time. This deluge of guest appearances also robs the album of its drive, creating the feeling that Soft Whiteis a compilation rather than a satisfying record from a gangsta rap veteran.

Glasses Malone is probably the best of the guests, putting in work on three tracks. His appearance on “Street Shit” is worth noting, as he adds a nice flow to Mike City’s Dr. Dre-inspired production.

Overall, Soft White doesn’t do enough to share a clear message. Mack 10 gets lost in the storm of guest spots, allowing listeners into the core of what kept him representing the West only a few times. It’s a dull record, sadly, and Mack 10 misses a golden opportunity to prove that his genre is still significant and still worth listening to.

September 23, 2009

3OH!3 – Want (Deluxe Edition)

Filed under: 2008, 2009, electro, electronic, hip hop, music, pop, pop, rap — Tags: , , , — Jordan Richardson @ 4:22 am

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Colorado’s 3OH!3 has been gathering steam amongst the teen squealers for a little while thanks in large part to their frat boy swagger and wannabe hip-hop swagger. It’s all intended in good fun, apparently, but these two Boulder slims come across artificial and downright irritating.

Released in the summer of 2008, Want exposed a broader audience to what Sean Foreman and Nathaniel Motte were up to. And now, thanks to a new remix of “Starstrukk” featuring the one and only Katy Perry, Want is making the rounds again in the form of a deluxe edition.

It’s easy to discard this sophomore record, released on Photo Finish Records, as meandering, monotonous muck. There are so many riffs on the hip-hop genre that it’s a little hard to take at times, as the procedure smells more like botched contempt and less like legitimate art. While I’m certainly all for a brush of comedy in music, 3OH!3 seems categorically outdated in their limp attempts at humour and style.

Musically, Want is pretty subpar stuff. Songs play with punk, rap and electro-pop without ever achieving the magic of the suggested synthesis. Instead, it’s like a science experiment gone nowhere: no explosion, no gross liquid, no nothing. Without the tenaciously unpleasant and childish lyrics, these bloody tunes just simply (and scarcely) exist.

Lyrically, it’s hard to tell if dear Nathaniel and Sean know what irony is or if they bathe in it like an eigth grader’s cologne. Tracks attempt some mild form of “depth,” like the embarrassingly emo “Still Around,” but for the most part it’s all vomit-caked idiocy.

Take the big flashy single, “Don’t Trust Me,” for instance. The boys attempt a really, really old-fashioned Helen Keller line, sadly failing in an era of Family Guy and South Park, and the basic refrain of “Don’t trust a ho, never trust a ho” sounds gaudy with all the backing wailing and electro-tweeting.

The swirling techno of “Starstrukk” featuring Katy Perry, which appears on the deluxe edition of Want, is still annoying thanks to that stupid whistling, but at least Perry adds another dynamic to the song that diminishes some of the frat boy bullshit.

The deluxe edition also features a Benny Blanco remix of “Don’t Trust Me” that locks in the talents of Kid Cudi and uses his swaggering tone to make things halfway interesting.

The basic problem with 3OH!3 and Want’s deluxe edition is that it’s boring. The music is tasteless and insignificant and the lyrics seem designed solely to manufacture reactions. The whole thing stands out as being incredibly insincere and fabricated solely for purposes of mass consumption, leaving any actual heart and soul behind in a blob of electronic haze and sophomoric, unfunny “humour.”

July 17, 2009

Beastie Boys – Ill Communication (Remastered Edition)

Filed under: 1994, 2009, conscious rap, essentials, experimental, hip hop, music, pop, pop, punk rock, rap — Tags: , , — Jordan Richardson @ 5:20 am

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“I listen to wax, I’m not using the CD,” Mike D tells us on “Sure Shot,” the opening cut to the Beastie Boys’ superb ’94 record Ill Communication. Whether or not an updated version of the cut would have included a discharge about MP3s is for you to decide, but the Remastered Edition of Ill sounds as funky-fresh today as it ever did.

Originally dropped a full five years after Paul’s Boutique, Ill Communication builds on the same tones and methods the Boys used all along. Chock-full of samples and maddeningly sick beats from a host of live instruments used to mingle the basics of hip hop and punk into one enchanting sound, this is a record that yields limitless rewards.

The Ill Communication Remastered Edition comes neatly packaged with 2 discs, original cover art and lyrics for those inclined to follow along – just remember to turn the page when you hear the chimes.

Ill marked another step on the boulevard away from the hard-partying frat boy personas that Mike D, Ad-Rock and MCA had worked so hard at in their early years. In the middle of the sharp rhymes and diabolical beats is a hardcore sense of growing up that signals that things are rather far removed from the trio’s early days as New York punkasses.

“Sure Shot” presses the premise early on. Over the celebrated flute loop and reverb effects, the Boys tell us that “the disrespect to women has got to be through.”

That’s not to say that the Boys grew all the way up, of course, as the same lawless vibe rifles through the record in the form of innumerable witty, strange and stupid rhymes. The anarchic lines about a basketball opponent on “Tough Guy” speak to the same glorious absurdity fans of the Beastie Boys have come to adore.

My favourite Beasties cut, “Sabotage,” is a feral yell-a-thon highlighted by filthy guitar and rumbling, twisted bass.

Other cuts like “Root Down” and the piano-looped “Get It Together” underline this audacious record with solid rap gold, but it’s the experimental stuff that really sets it apart from the standard. The uncanny punk explosion of “Heart Attack Man” demonstrates that the Boys still know how to break a few guitars and “The Update” and “Bodhisattva Vow” showcase MCA’s growth as the social conscience of the group.

The second disc of the Remastered Edition uncorks a set of rarities and unreleased cuts that add a new dynamic to the recording. The remixes, like the slow and funky “Free Zone Mix” of “Root Down,” offer new consistency to old classics. “Mullet Head” and the two versions of “Heart Attack Man” continue the Boys’ punk lineage in distorted-as-hell fashion.

The Ill Communication Remastered Edition does a nice job bringing the beats and rhymes that defined growth for the Beastie Boys into a new context. The recording is clean, the beats are ferocious and the bass rumbles intensely through the speakers. These CDs might lack the texture of wax, but they still offer a whole lot of bounce for your ounce.

May 18, 2009

Eminem – Relapse

Filed under: 2009, hip hop, music, pop, pop, rap, west coast — Tags: , , — Jordan Richardson @ 10:30 am

Relapse_(album)

Built on the ashes of a broken marriage, the death of a close friend, addiction issues, and the customary laundry list of targets, Eminem’s Relapse is a commanding, disturbing, overwhelming assemblage of music. The return of Marshall Mathers is going to be big business, that’s for damn sure, but what’s really big is just how cavernous and sinister this record turns out to be.

Bolstered by some of Dr. Dre’s best beats in years, Relapse finds the rapper running efficiently between what’s expected of him as a favourite of the squealing teen crowd and what he’s capable of as one of the cleverest artists in hip-hop.

Interestingly, despite what some may have heard on the sub-par singles, Eminem’s biggest target is actually himself. Relapse unpacks his closet with reckless abandon, flinging out limitless drug references and disconcerting tales of molestation and murder steeped in pain and candor. There’s no turning back and something tells me Em knows that.

Rolling Stone writer Rob Sheffield makes a rather fitting comparison when he says that Relapse is a lot like Richard Pryor’s 1982 Live on the Sunset Strip. While Pryor’s live audience doubtlessly shuffled and deliberated over whether or not to laugh at Pryor’s stories of freebase addiction and self-harm, so too will Eminem’s audience move towards this record. With Dre’s beats pulsating, it’s hard to know whether it’s acceptable to rock out to verses about passing out in the car or a parent drugging himself into a trance in front of his child.

With two exceptions, Eminem handles his Relapse on his own. The guest spots are limited to Dr. Dre and 50 Cent, giving the album an intimate quality as though no other MCs were close enough to impose on songs so delicate.

Relapse’s lesser moments come where expected, as Eminem launches a puny round of passé couplets at celebs on “We Made You.” While Dre’s beat is still stellar, the verses leave a lot to be desired and the track almost sounds like a compromise. Judging Relapse on the basis of this single would be a huge mistake, of course.

Miraculously, Eminem doesn’t attempt to hang his problems on Kim this time out. That’s not to say that mom still isn’t a mark of derision, as the searing “My Mom” drives with hard-to-stomach lyrics and Dre’s swaying production. Em unloads, charging full steam ahead with troubling verses sealed off with his singing of the chorus: “I’m on what I’m on because I’m my mom.”

“Insane” features more upsetting content, lighting the fuse with lines like “My stepfather said that I sucked in the bed.” It is a stunning, potent piece of music.

Relapse offsets its darker moments, of which there are many, with attempts at clearing the air and the mood, but Eminem has a lot of hate on his mind and most of it is directed at himself. When he isn’t taking on his own sense of antipathy, he sounds deliberately vacant. As such, Relapse works most effectively as a complete character study.

Christopher Reeve gets it again (and gets his revenge) in “Medicine Ball,” while the knowingly-titled “Same Old Song and Dance” rolls out lyrics about Britney and Lindsay.

The only track not produced by Dr. Dre, the Eminem-produced “Beautiful,” is perhaps the album’s oddest track. Its hackneyed balladry somehow works in the framework of Relapse, with Em’s gangly vocals inelegantly telling anyone who’ll listen to never doubt their beauty.

Eminem’s negative energy on Relapse helps him avoid gratification. It also helps him drop some of the best work of his career with moments of damn-near-unlistenable frankness peppered throughout the album. And in working with Dr. Dre, Eminem has created a personal masterpiece that has enabled him to pile all of the hate and insults right where he believes they truly belong.

Paul Wall – Fast Life

Filed under: 2009, hip hop, music, pop, pop, rap, southern — Tags: , — Jordan Richardson @ 9:31 am

FastLife

Filled with a series of trunk-blasting anthems, Paul Wall’s Fast Life won’t rattle your consciousness with deep lyrics and won’t threaten your well being with gangster rap. Unfortunately, it doesn’t do much of anything beyond what we’re used to from the Swishahouse People’s Champ, coming off as truly monotonous in some places and flat-out inconsequential most everywhere else.

The Houston rapper is growing up and clearly attempts to stretch things out here, but he so enthusiastically stumbles back to familiar patterns that it’s hard for him to gain any momentum. Fast Life, his fourth studio album, does little to push envelopes and seems more than at ease to roll out as a windows-down cruising record. Sometimes that’s enough, however.

The beats are solid, with some nice production from Beanz & Kornbread, Mouse, Gennessee, I.N.F.O. & NOVA, and Travis Barker (yes, that Travis Barker). Wall sounds best over clipped Southern beats and does well to create an effortless, smooth sippin’ mood while spouting mechanical, unremarkable lyrics.

That’s not to say that he doesn’t try to go deeper and offer up some strong content, of course. “Daddy Wasn’t Home” is profoundly personal, showcasing Wall in true Tupac mode with an enjoyable gliding cut that digs deep and describes how his mother kept things going when his father wasn’t around. “My daddy was a fool, addicted to brown, so he never was around, but my mama held me down,” he spits.

Sadly, a highlight like that really showcases just how average the rest of Fast Life is.

Featuring Baby Bash, “Lemon Drop” is an aggravating, cyclical joint lacking any impact. The lyrics are characterless and the chorus vocals are exceptionally weak.

“Fly,” featuring Young Joc and Gorilla Zoe, drones on and on with a repetitive two-bar loop and humdrum lyrics about, you guessed it, getting high. And Too $hort is hardly given the red carpet treatment on the undistinguished “Pop One of These” with Skinhead Rob and The Federation.

At best, Paul Wall’s Fast Life provides a respectable set of well-produced beats for the backdrop of a patio party in the hot summertime. A closer listen reveals that there’s not much here going on beneath the surface, with infrequent exceptions. Wall’s skill as MC, especially as an album-leading MC, leaves a lot to be desired and Fast Life never pushes hard enough for the listener’s concentration. 

May 6, 2009

Big Pooh – The Delightful Bars (North American Pie Version)

Filed under: 2009, hip hop, music, pop, rap, underground — Tags: , , — Jordan Richardson @ 10:53 am

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Little Brother’s Big Pooh began construction on The Delightful Bars with every intention of simply putting out a mixtape, but the project soon morphed into something bigger and a full-length LP was born. Available as a few different versions, Big Pooh’s solo follow-up to 2005’s Sleepers finds the MC in positive command of his rhyme game.

“This is some of my best work to date as a solo artist. I started off recording for a mixtape, but I had a plethora of material that deserved a presentation much larger than a mixtape,” he explains, adding that The Delightful Bars serves as a sort of informal overpass between Sleepers and the forthcoming Dirty Pretty Things.

The Delightful Bars is available as a special iTunes only version (the Candy Apple Version) and a Belgian Chocolate Version. For the purposes of this review, I’m taking a look at the North American Pie Version.

The North Carolina rapper demonstrates his skill all over The Delightful Bars, ripping out verse after verse of smart, consistent lyrics. He’s joined by a slew of guest stars, including Jay Rock, Torae, Big Dho, Ab-Soul, E-Ness, and more.

Production duties are handled by a rock-solid squad of superstars, with the likes of Khrysis, Jake One, Illmind, former Little Brother producer 9th Wonder, Young RJ, and The Co-Op at the switches and dials.

Fans of hip-hop know Big Pooh and Little Brother well. The group earned an XL rating from XXL Magazine for 2005’s The Minstrel Show and has been considered one of the most important and compelling underground hip-hop acts going at the moment. Surprisingly, Phonte from Little Brother does not appear on The Delightful Bars.

The lead single, “The Comeback,” features stellar Khrysis production and rolls with a satisfying groove. Big Pooh owns the track, laying out bars with dexterity. It won’t move mountains, but it’s a nice way to draw listeners in to the record.

Also produced by Khrysis, “The Life” features Mushinah and finds Big Pooh rocking a pensive vibe over a trouble-free beat and electro waves. A funky bounce highlights “Problems,” a joint riding the waves of Illmind production and a Jozeemo appearance.

The Delightful Bars will please fans of tightly produced underground rap. Big Pooh rocks the mic well enough and, while there aren’t many standout tracks, he’s created a respectable bridge to better things. 

April 27, 2009

J. Wells – Digital Master Vol. 2.1

Filed under: 2009, hip hop, music, rap — Tags: , , , , , , , — Jordan Richardson @ 6:38 am

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J. Wells certainly knows how to gather the stars to his cause, uniting MCs like Snoop Dogg, Rah Digga, Mack 10, Kurupt, Roscoe, Da Brat, and others on his Digital Master Vol. 2.1 set.

Wells, known most for his production credits, definitely knows how to rock a good beat too and this disc essentially finds him showing his stuff. The lyrical content is largely insignificant and no MC really brings the heat, save for maybe J-Ro of the Alkaholiks, but there are some great summer cruising tunes here and that’s going to be good enough for some.

J. Wells has formed quite a career for himself, dropping bombs in the game since he was 16 with his group Rocswell. Rapping in local clubs, it wasn’t long before he discovered that his talent was really in beats and production. Fast-forward a few years and Wells found himself inducted into the Likwit Crew, a legendary hip hop collective featuring artists like Defari and Lootpack.

Digital Master Vol. 2.1 finds Wells working the switches, proving that he can assemble a solid West Coast beat with the best of them.

“We Don’t Give a Fuck,” featuring WC, bounces with nice atmospherics and a clip Dr. Dre would be proud of. The hook is satisfying, too, and WC lays out a respectable but typical set of lyrics covering the usual subject matter of gangbanging with the homies.

“All My Bitches,” with the notorious inflection of Snoop Dogg, rolls out the usual faintly misogynistic lyrics about pimping and so forth. The song’s loop is almost euphoric, off-setting the slightly disturbing tone agreeably.

A Southern-fried-beat coats “Already Famous.” Featuring Kurupt and Da Brat, this cut is a decent little collaboration with a trouble-free, lazy gait.

For my money, the best track on Digital Master Vol. 2.1 is “Not No More.” Loaded with the services of J-Ro from the Alkaholiks, this cut has the most noteworthy lyrical contribution. Laying out words about expectations and dashed hopes, J-Ro spits with skilful flow. “I used to think that war would never reach my shore, not no more, not no more,” he says.

And Estelle shows her chops again in the perfected singer/rapper collaboration she manages so well with “You Don’t Love Me.” Wells lays out a jazzy beat that fits flawlessly.

Sadly, the significant lack of lyrical content proves to be this record’s undoing. The dreadful “Ticket” features Doll Phace laying out some seriously silly lyrics about getting a speeding ticket on the way to see a lover. While this could have been delivered with humor, the pokerfaced attempt at sensual delivery is inadvertently side-splitting. And the bountiful amounts of Auto-Tune don’t help.

All in all, though, Digital Master Vol. 2.1 is a good little assemblage of summer party tracks. The beats are solid, even if Wells still lacks an individual sound all his own, and the loops are catchy enough. Just don’t look for much in the lyric department.

April 22, 2009

Krumb Snatcha – Hidden Scriptures

Filed under: 2009, hip hop, music, rap — Tags: , — Jordan Richardson @ 11:04 am

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Underground hip hop artists often toil in ambiguity for ages, dropping mixtape after mixtape to an ostensibly undetectable audience. It is rare for an independent rapper to rise through the ranks and crack the industry without relinquishing the sharp edges and giving in to record label pressure.

While Krumb Snatcha hasn’t exactly cracked the industry, he has stabbed through the shell with his clever, incisive lyrics and firm delivery. K.S. saw his profile go national thanks to his appearance with Gang Starr on “Make Em Pay” from the group’s classic Moment of Truth. The verse was enough to make K.S. the first indie artist to receive the “Hip Hop Quotable” from The Source magazine.

Now, after a couple of albums and a slew of guest appearances, Krumb Snatcha is set for the next episode.

Hidden Scriptures marks a reinvention of sorts. “The vibe was totally different on this one,” K.S. explains. “I wanted to show everyone the other side of me. I feel like I’ve been walking in the dark for to long and I wanted to give the people my inner me.”

Featuring production from Pete Rock, Large Professor, Beatminerz, Statik Selektah, and DJ Ace, K.S. gets his shot at exposition through a gathering of tight, well-expressed tracks. His flow fits comfortably over the beats, pulling out some truly extraordinary rhymes to help shed some light on his personality and technique.

The invigorating jam of “Hold It Down” rocks back and forth with a slamming Nickel Plated arrangement. It’s a party track, for the most part, and K.S. feels right at home over the keys and beats.

“Mind Power” pounds with an electrifying beat from Large Professor and K.S.’s sharp, forceful lyrics. He explains living life on the path of simplicity, telling the listener to “stay positive and focus on the good gods.”

Krumb Snatcha isn’t afraid to push boundaries and get political, as evidenced on the opening cut. “The Way” opens with sound clips from a news broadcast on 9/11, while K.S. unleashes a contentious, commanding, and affecting bombardment. By speaking out on the issues and keeping honest, hip hop has, for the most part, remained pertinent while other genres risk stagnation.

Elsewhere the vibe isn’t as successful, like on the Nickel Plated-produced “East is Back.” The tenor winds with the snarl of a pit bull, giving K.S. a chance to test his belligerence. The results are less than thought-provoking, though, and the tough guy braggadocio doesn’t fit well.

Overall, Hidden Scriptures does the trick as an attention-grabbing, intellectual hip hop record. K.S. uses his powers for good, dripping his lyrics with ingenuity and consciousness. “Music should give people a mood. Whether it’s a dark one or an uplifting one, it should explain the matters of heart,” he explains.

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