9th Wonder — Zion

One of the first instrumental studio albums of 9th Wonder, hip-hop producer from Winston-Salem, North Carolina: the disk is the first of the long series "Zion".

"Base for Your Face" boasts a great sample, excellent and energetic jazzy boom bap rhythm, with a perfect slow drum and great strings. It's one of the best instrumentals of the edition and few will remain at this level. The second track is a jazzy boom bap supported by a snare drum in the background, with a good looped piano and a chopped and looped sample from JR Bailey's "Heaven on Earth". "Whitty Jam" is quite mediocre: female sample looped too tightly and squeaky in the background, decent drum, decent sound comes out, but not good. "Baby Cry" is the first of a large series of short tracks (between minute and minute and a half): energetic boom bap, robust drum, good strings and good short female melodic sample from "Cry Together" by O'Jays. "How Many Ways" by Toni Braxton provides the sound background for the downtempo rhythm of the following song, with good drum and soul-ballad vibes. The sixth choice is discreet and simple, while "Basement Love" features a Jodeci sample with a few elegant piano keys, horn and very slow drum.

This choice precedes "The Gambler", which is one of the highlights of the entire "Zion" album series: wonderful sample from "Life Is a Gamble" by Marvin Gaye, glossy boom bap, wonderful and rich, robust drum, flawless instrumental cut. A generic rhythm with a messy drum follows, then there's "Tender Love": skinny rhythm with slow, pounding, heavy and incessant drum machine, fantastic elegant piano and good soul sample from "Diana" by Jae Mason. At track number eleven, the producer also tries a short, discreet oriental beat. The next instrumental is short, but weak, and opens a quite poor and weak section of the tape. Songs 13 and 14 are simply decent, then two average rhythms follow and the peak comes in "Star Star Bass". It's the ugliest instrumental of the edition, 9th Wonder comes out of his area of competence and releases a scarce videogame rhythm, with an exhausting and chaotic beat and a broken drum. The following rhythms are better, "Heard Anymore" offers a light synth on essential drum, while "Hold on 2 U" boasts melodic samples.

The tape returns to an acceptable level at track number twenty, when 9th Wonder finds a minimal boom bap with honest drum and modern sample from Ruff Endz's "Someone to Love You", providing rnb-ballad vibes. "Side by Clack" has a good rhythm, so, "Season Courage" is among the best instrumentals: boom bap with piano, slow and light drum and good sample from "Ame No Machi O" by Yumi Arai. "Know You Can" is even better: minimal soundscape, great slow and pounding drum, melodic samples from "Love's a Heartache" by Leslie Smith and chipmunk soul samples. The next pick boasts an honest, dirty and dirty drum with female samples, while cut number 25 features an honest rhythm, with male soul samples and a slow pounding drum machine. 9th Wonder keeps a chipmunk sample for "San Boogie" and makes a short instrumental for "Memory", with melodic female soulful samples on a slow pounding drum. The next choice has a decent sampled snare drum, "Next Bell Soul" is made up of a poor drum and an almost annoying piano. Track number 30 has an energetic drum and a male melodic sample. A song with frenetic drum and melodic samples follows. "Manhattan Down" has a minimal rhythm with a light snare drum, while the following one is simply mediocre. Two other short and minimal rhythms follow, among which "Next Hiya" boasts an essential and lacerating drum combined with a melodic female sample. It closes track 36, a melodic female soul sample, excellent, with an essential slow drum.

9th Wonder makes a tape of 66 minutes of listening, divided into 36 instrumentals. His desire to insert so many mediocre rhythms while giving up quality for quantity will continue throughout his series of albums "Zion", which this album inaugurates. After a quite solid first part (1-8) with some sudden flashes, the tape begins to significantly decrease its quality in the central section (9-19), with some poor choices, before regaining quality thanks to productions that appear almost lucky in the third part (20-27). In the end, the disk returns to suffer a lot and loses some control of the situation, starting to skid dangerously, but arriving safely at the finale (28-36). It's not a particularly interesting or necessary journey, the record is generic and the producer rarely guesses the right elements to create memorable rhythms, here represented only by the banger "The Gambler".

Highlights: "Base for Your Face", "A King's Life", "Baby Cry", "Ways I Love", "The Gambler", "Tender Love", "Season Courage", "Know You Can", "Ooo Waaaahh".

Rating: 6.4/10.