Army of the Pharaohs: Ritual of Battle

Formed by Jedi Mind Tricks' Vinni Paz, Army of the Pharaohs, aka AOTP, is an underground super group. Ritual Of Battle is the second album released by AOTP. This 16 song album is not one to put on if you're trying to sit back and relax. On the second verse of the song "Black Christmas", Doap Nixon starts off with the line "I made a promise that I never get high, I 'aint scared of death, I'm scared to live wantin' to die." This line is guaranteed to give you the chills. Doap Nixon finishes the verse by saying "We all 'bout to put this game in a frenzy, and the chain's slight frost like the air in a Benzy." Demoz raps on the chilling chorus "I can feel a breeze through the leaves when D's passin' me by, you can breathe you can bleed but please wrap me a nine, on black Christmas, I need a Gun with bullets on black Christmas, black Christmas." Demoz also spits on the fourth verse with lines like "I once heard the art of war is don't start a war, so I don't think you wanna ride like a carnivore, I mean carnivore excuse my French I'm on the floor, the bruisin' wet got me feelin' like I took a Hallucinet, blue is bent, L-Y who the truest yet, blew the inf, brain fragments flyin' through the fence, stupid is as stupid does, I 'aint stupid cuz, I rap like a motha fuckin' animal my blueish blood." Overall this song is a must hear for the simple fact of the lyrical content. The beat is a little slow in my opinion but check out a guy by the name of Thomax out of Norway who does a remix with a different beat to this song. The song "Gun Ballad" produced by Ill Bill, comes hard with the same intense lyrics but with a better constructed beat. In the song's second verse Demoz shoots a line over to Nas perhaps by saying "If hip hop is dead, call me ghost in the flesh, I'm close to the best." Vinnie Paz ends the third verse with the line "This ain't the type of place you can survive God, God don't live inside me, I live inside God." By far the track "Seven" has to be my favorite. Laced with lines and verses that, when you first hear them, you have to rewind to make sure you heard right. The song goes on over 6 minutes and is probably the best 6 minute song I've ever heard! Flawless the whole way through. If I was to highlight all the interesting and witty lines in this song I'd be better off just posting the lyrics to the whole song. But I will point out some of my favorites. On the track's fourth verse, Reef The Lost Cauze, hits you with the thought, "did he just say that?", with the line, "There's hell to pay, but the devil don't take checks, I tried to send a message to God, his phone don't take text." For the track's fifth verse steps in Doap Nixon, who's line makes me laugh every time, "Hand to hand till your hands ache, I drunk so much syrup dawg I stop eatin' pancakes." Demoz controls the track's sixth verse with the line that in my opinion says he could care less about doing anything or saying goodbye to anyone for the last time, " Nigga, if I had 24 hours to live, fuck 24 hours, gimme 24 seconds, Vin I'm drivin off a bridge." Celph Titled goes to work on the seventh verse with ill lines like, "I'm Jesus in the flesh so this is mutha fuckin' Christian rap, y'all just Christmas wrap, must be the secret Santa, my reindeer aim near, pierce you with the antlers" and also this eerie line "And a year before your kid's 10th birthday came, you didn't have to wait for candles on the cake to see the nine flame." Possibly AOTP's finest work! I'll end this review with the final song and its first verse, which pretty much sums up underground rap vs. mainstream rap, rap when it first started and rap nowadays. Doap Nixon starts the song off with the line, "The first time I heard rap I was so gased, 'cause back then, you could make an album with no cash, cut now a days everybody is so cool, you got niggas dropping out of school to learn pro tools." Although a bit violent with their lyrics at times, overall this is a must get cd for any hip-hop head and any JMT fan.