Return of 4Eva Review

First off I would like to say that I'm thoroughly impressed by K.R.I.T. (time and time again). I guess what they say is right, the best things in life are free! Throughout listening to this tape I found myself gradually turning the volume up with each and every song that I listened to. I've never been to the South before but every time I hear a K.R.I.T. track I can almost smell the Magnolia's. I'm dumbfounded on how a rapper from this generation has so much soul. It's really rare these days and without a doubt a blessing. With an intro song that has more substance and playback potential than most of these other rappers singles (you rappers should play this track before you go on stage). This is what I call hands-free music. Just press play, sit back and enjoy.

Here's a handful of the songs that stood out to me (at least for the first few times I've played the tape).

Rise and Shine
Something you should do if you're still sleeping on Krizzle! "Prayin' for the future but I'm dealin' with the past." Such a simple lyric but there's so much emotion in those few words. "Tired of sittin' on the couch, watchin' celebs pout about the troubles of a million dollar house." Damn! So ill!

R4 Theme Song
You can get your head noddin' with this one. Such a feel good beat! People forget that K.R.I.T. produces too! Super human dude right here.

Dreamin'
This is one of the dopest beats I've heard in a while and instantly one of my favorite K.R.I.T. tracks. Krizzle sampled the Brothers of Souls song "Dream". "In a class of my own but I was scared to raise my arm."

Sookie Now ft. David Banner
Ahhhh shit! Surprisingly I was really excited when Banner came on track. I haven't really listened to him since his "Mississippi" album. Head stays noddin' throughout this track.

American Rapstar
"An A&R once told me “you can determine the worth of a song within 15 seconds of it playing”. With complete n utter lack of the fact that it takes takes all 3 minutes and 40 seconds of a song to comprehend what I’m sayin’. It aint a single if it don’t fly. It aint a hit if it don’t ride. Now he couldn’t tell me the components of a smash but the ringtones were their all-time high. And a rappers only as big as his chain, the flashier the better." I love how K.R.I.T. believed in something and stayed true to it. Throughout this tape he sheds light on the music industry and how he waited until it was right. I'm really glad he had the courage to not listen to what others were saying.

Amtrak
Officially the theme song for Rail Road Hip Hop! This beat and K.R.I.T.'s flow on this one = dopeness! "I know you hear this train comin'."

Another Naive Individual Glorifying Greed and Encouraging Racism
This one right here has to be my favorite track on this whole tape! So much pain and passion in that intro. This one will be on repeat for some time! Beautiful music from a beautiful human being.

The Vent
Honestly almost teared up on this one. "How can the devil take my brother if he's close to me?" Such a dope Tupac lyric sample. Then the rhyming pattern off the first few sentences on "Changes". So good. "The radio don't play the shit I used to love, or maybe I'm just growin' up." Man K.R.I.T. is so easy to relate to.

All in all this is one of the dopest pieces of combined music I've ever heard. K.R.I.T. you've officially cemented your place in time.

K. Flay Presents: Mashed Potatoes

I'd say I definitely have a profound love for women. I've been told I even might be obsessed with women. I concur, partially. But when it comes to women rappers my love for them somewhat vanishes. Don't get me wrong, I'm no where near sexist. It's just that I don't tend to dig them musically. I mean I like Missy Elliott (but that's because of her odd, yet creative music videos), I like M.I.A. (but that's because I dig the fact that she's from Sri Lanka), I like Eve (but that's because of her awesome tattoo on her breast) and I like Salt N Peppa (well because the simple fact that Salt N Peppa are sick). It's honestly a shame that my brain thinks like this and that I'm starting off the post like this, but trust me, I will get to the point.

All that aside, when it comes to K. Flay, all those thoughts are out the door. She's dope! With a look that for some reason reminds me off Lily Allen and a style that reminds me of that one Fergie song, "London Bridge", K. Flay has me nodding my head and tapping my feet.

The 24-year-old, hailing from San Francisco, mixed and produced the whole cd by herself (awesome)! The first song from the mixtape, "ON the bridge" (which samples the Red Hot Chili Peppers song, "Under The Bridge"), is def my favorite song on the mixtape. K. Flay makes the sample feel like it was meant for hip hop. The song also has the feel of Ice Cube's "It Was A Good Day" with lines like: "The day well homie it ain’t done yet, Cause it’s only half past three, Chillin as the CHP zoom swiftly right past me".

For the third song on the mixtape comes "CRAZYtown". The song samples Gnarls Barkley's song, "Crazy". Definitely a song that gets your foot tapping and I even laughed at the line, "As I stare at an ink blot, Thinking why I think the thoughts I think, Paying 20 g’s a year straight to my shrink". The fifth song is the most creative song on the mixtape in my opinion. The track titled, "miniVANS ft. Eligh", samples The Pack's song, "Vans". Only she's not rapping about sneakers, she's rapping about rolling around in her family's Chrysler Town and Country. "Singing 99 bottles of beer, so obnoxious, Reading Bearenstein Bears till I got too nauseous." Did she just use Bearenstein Bears in one of her raps?! I now officially have a crush on this chick.

The sixth track is titled, "love in this CLUB MED" (obviously sampling Usher and his song "Love In This Club"). This track has taken me from my comfortable spot on my couch to my bathroom mirror (singing along with K. Flay and trying to look cool while doing it... I even took a few bathroom pics for my Myspace while I was at it). "I wanna make love in this club to a thug with a speedo, Hit up my cabana whip it like devo, No clap, all I’m catching is rays, Ladies in the back let me hear you say." This chick is awesome! If nothing more, the tenth track (sampling M.I.A.'s song, "Paper Planes") had me scared. K. Flay starts off the track by saying, "So watch the fuck out man, I dig a hole to China, put your head in it". She goes hard! The eleventh song and also the last is titled, "crack a VANILLA COKE", a song about K. Flay's addiction and desire for Vanilla Coke. At first I had trouble figuring out what the sample was but finally I realized it was Eminem's "Crack A Bottle". Sorry Marshal but K. Flay's song is far superior.

Overall this mixtape is dope! Totally creative, very addicting and I highly recommend it. Whether woman or man, quality music is quality music. If you're reading this review K. Flay, we should go out, you can teach me how to make home-made mashed potatoes sometime. Oh and I was totally joking about taking bathroom pics for my Myspace. I swear! Speaking of Myspace be sure to check out K. Flay on her's. Click HERE

CYNE Overall

It's not like I post on here regularly but my laptop broke so it's been even longer. I apologize to anyone out there that was waiting for new posts. Anyways you may have already seen the interview I did with one of the members from CYNE, Akin. Sitting back today and relaxing I figured that I'd do a "light" review of their cd's. Basically just listing my favorite songs of theirs and a favorite line or two from each song. Hopefully this gives some people some fresh music to listen to!

Collections 1999-2003
Tragic- "People no joke, my songs strong like the soul folk, why he go broke, hold your ice, the rap poltergeist. here to bring colder nights, people wake up, slave rappers in the industry need to wake up."
400 Years- "I’m breaking these shackles, they got me chained away from my liberty, look at the history, how they treated us through the centuries, like inanimate animals, only given annual holidays, to represent the hardships we endure today."

Time Being
Nothing's Sacred- "Who cant conform, who can't be told what is norm, who gotta perform with therapy, who's soul is torn."
Steady- "Do you remember when Martin had a dream and Bobby had a regiment."
Samura's Optic- "It is my mission, to shed light to the subject, confederate flags over the houses of the rednecks, American pride, or just evil in disguise, a close reminder of why many of my people died, to bring change in the midst of pain and oppression, we had to stand together and our hope was the weapon."
First Person- "I fight for life and make sure my lifes right, I stand strong on my own two, so what you gonna do, I hold you, In the web of my speech and mold you."

Evolution Fight
Soapbox- "Fu*k a penny for my thoughts, here's a dolla."
Arrow Of God- "I do believe in being after this sh!t, whether you righteous or a misfit, intrigued by the here after, avoid the fear factor, capture the fact that self will be here after, celebrate life and death in the same vein, and those that are gone I mourn but it's from pain."
Running Water- "I stand and I fall, and get up cuz I’m ready to run, like Icarus because I’m close to the sun."
Up Above- "I'll wrestle angels just to see your face again, because you were my life, my mother, my friend."

Pretty Dark Things
I haven't listened to this cd enough to comment on much but I dig the line, "Ladies with their legs wide, goodbye to dildo, goodbye to dildo" from the song Elephant Rome.

I'll try to post on here more often but in the time being (no pun intended) check out CYNE. They're one of the best underground hip hop groups.

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.