|
REVIEW:
Overall Rating:
 
Lyrics:
Beats:
Written By:
The Reccollectah
For anyone who
dug hiphop during the late eighties and all throughout the
nineties this announced collaboration was one of the most
promising and anticipated of 2010… but maybe also one of the
most unexpected pairings in hip hop.
The Blastmaster and the True Master in a studio together …
aka Masters at work, the Wu Tang beatsmith meets the Boogie
Down Icon. On paper this idea can’t fail : behind the mic we
find one of the most consistent, passionate, skilled MC’s in
the game EVER ( Or can you name another MC who’s been
constantly delivering since halfway the eighties, who has a
stash of classic songs and albums, who influenced nearly
every rapper with a bit of a name in the game, who always
has something interesting to say and who can give anyone a
lyrical beating in a one on one ? ). Behind the boards we
find a producer whose output is (in numbers) rather the
opposite: he started producing in the early nineties but
chose to only put out tracks here and there in the Wu camp.
Compared to KRS-One his catalogue is rather minimal and
still to this day fans are desperately waiting for his first
solo album. But while the quantity of tracks to date is
rather minimal their quality and reputation is maximal. I
challenge anyone to name a crappy True Master track: good
luck at finding one.
So in other
words what can we expect ? No gimmicks, no trendy “flavor of
the day” production but straight up quality Beats and Rhymes
from 2 Veterans with enormous reputations in the hip hop
scene. Nothing more, nothing less as KRS states himself on
‘Unified Fields’ :”True master got beats so I'ma rhyme on
this mic “ or to paraphrase Wu Tang : “Can it be that it is
all so simple then ?”
First thing
that draws the attention when looking at the tracklist is
the large portion of skits: 20 tracks but only 11 actual
songs. I suspect there’s gonna be some heavy pro and con
discussions on these amongst fans. In my opinion ? Pro is
that some of these skits contain some real jewels for the
mind if you’re willing to receive them, cons: there’s just
way too many of them and they take the rhythm out of the
album . Plus in each skit KRS shares his thoughts over the
same beat so after a while they start getting a bit monotone
: maybe a different beat for each skit would have helped in
that department ? Still I recommend absorbing the messages
hidden in them as the Blastmaster always has something
interesting to share with the intention of uplifting your
mind … if you want to find a real role-model in hip hop it
beats putting a bulletproof vest on your 4 year old son any
day if you ask me, cough -50 Cent-cough.
When listening
to the 11 songs our masters cooked up in the studio together
one quickly hears that both stick at what they know and do
best: True Master brings his trademark beats and sounds for
Kris to spit his typical darts over covering the usual KRS
topics. Production wise this is a very solid album , KRS
states: “Rappers are afraid of beats like these cause real
MC’s will take them down like trees”.
True’s style
(luckily) hasn’t changed much over the years as he still
comes with the sickest beats . You can take ‘sick beat’
literally : when True Master creates a beat he likes to add
a strange twist to the beat, making it at first sound a bit
broke. But his unorthodox approach proves to work out great
and each time results in a typical True Master beat: a slow
paced but addictively pounding beat with layered bits and
pieces of sounds/samples interwoven throughout the track.
Quality stuff, need examples ? Try ‘Murda ya’ , ‘Palm and
fist’ or ‘He’s us’ : all vintage True Master productions
that surprisingly fit Kris like a glove.
Lyricwise this
is also on point : KRS ( as was to be expected ) sounds as
relevant and confident as ever proving that aging in hip-hop
isn’t a handicap but rather a plus. His flow is again
remarkable, every word is Kris(tal) clear and jewels are
thrown in your face throughout the album. When on topics
like battling other rappers or the golden era of hip-hop one
might say this all has been heard before but no one brings
these as confident as the Blastmaster. But I prefer tracks
like ‘Palm and fist’, ’Unified field’ or ‘Meta historical’
where Kris comes with original theories, true wisdom for the
youngsters and striking observations or questions.
Features been
kept to a minimum as only the RZA and Cappadonna
(successfully) join these two in the studio. Speaking of
features fans of True Masters rapping skills will be glad to
hear him join the booth twice : in “He’s us” he brings a
great verse to the table while in ‘Knowledge reigns supreme’
he blesses the track with the chorus. Two features might not
sound like a lot but to this day you could count his
features on the fingers of one hand so …
Final
Conclusion:
Though the skits get monotone after a while and as usual
KRS’s ego can get a bit too much at times , the quality of
the music and lyrics make up for this easily .Only a few
songs let down ( e.g. “Gimme da 90s” could do with a real
old school beat and a better chorus ) but I can only
conclude the following: GO GET THIS ASAP !!!!
<Read Other Album Reviews> |
