Passionate about hip-hop since childhood, after having founded his own label and having released a series of mixtapes, the latest being "Bar Exam" with Royce and Premier, Patrick Baril debuts with his studio album, the last chapter from the "Spell My Name Right" mixtape series. Baril, under the name of Statik Selektah, in previous years has produced tracks for KRS-One, O.C. and The Firm, that is, he made beats for AZ, Nas and Foxy Brown, on separate projects. Unlike any DJ Khaled album, Statik Selektah produces the entire album and collaborates with some of the best hip-hop artists: DJ Premier, The LOX, Q-Tip, Talib Kweli, Joell Ortiz, Kool G Rap, Freeway, Cassidy, Cormega, Royce da 5'9", Doug E. Fresh, Tony Touch, MOP, AZ, Slum Village, Evidence, The Alchemist, AG, Skyzoo, KRS-One, Large Professor and his friends Reks and Termanology.
The disc opens with an intro by DJ Premier of Gang Starr, an artist who has previously helped Statik and who will help him later, giving visibility to his next album. Great jazzy boom bap, good samples, good piano, skinny, syncopated energetic and vibrant drum machine; this is a typical Premier beat, with classic scratches and samples, as well as a decent delivery of Termanology, which is the big host of the edition, with seven apparitions. "Stop, Look, Listen" is track number two: jazzy musical carpet, beautiful sample, energetic and regular drum, simple hook, good smooth delivery of Styles P, Term here is as decent as ever, then Q-Tip annihilates the cut. The third song revisits an NWA classic, placing Talib Kweli and Consequence in it: boom bap jazzy, good sample, decent smooth delivery of Termanology, in his third song in a row, Talib Kweli is much better than him with a professional flow, Consequence closes, worthily.
In "6 in the Morning", young Joell Ortiz has a pretty serious task, having to prove he's up to G Rap and Sheek, of the LOX: Statik's sublime energetic jazzy boom bap, crisp, essential drum machine, great samples, Ortiz's calm and smudge-free delivery, scratched hook in a style reminiscent of the producer of Gang Starr, then G Rap. The MC that brought mob rap to life is always smooth and effortless, has good flow, but he's uninspired here and not at his finest. Sheek Louch could use the opportunity to brag about being the best performer on a posse track with legend Kool G Rap, however, he closes decent and with a forgettable syncopated style, leaving the Don Corleone of rap in his place on the throne of this track.
"What Would You Do!?" was born destined to become a clear highlight of the record, an easy banger: beat of Statik, Freeway and Cassidy should blow the bank. The emerging producer doesn't miss anything here, jazzy boom bap with regular drum and female chipmunk soul samples to which the good Cassidy and especially the Roc-La-Familia Freeway should be very accustomed to. Simple hook, brutal delivery, syncopated and shouted, hardcore and tearing, from the State Property rapper who ravages everything unconsciously and uncontrollably, destroying the rhythm. It's one of the few times that is not a good thing. Freeway, still pissed, exits the track, and after a few seconds, Cassidy arrives, dancing and looking carefree at the ceiling. When his gaze falls on the room, it's a far Wild West scenario: you don't understand anything anymore, it's a disaster, it's up to him to clean up everything, but it's impossible. Cassidy delivers with a more accommodating style, follows the current of the rhythm, the exact opposite of Freeway, basically, he's pissing on the mess that the other interpreter created, before going to get drunk as carefree as he had entered the room.
The definitive worst moment is approaching, not only of the entire album or of the entire discography of Statik Selektah, but of his entire career: skit, where DJ Khaled makes random screams. The guy thinks he's in one of his albums, ahahhaha, idol. The difference is that Statik doesn't even miss the interludes, it's quite another thing. Khaled is later dissed [practically] by Clinton Sparks in the other interlude, about a wonderful production. Khaled brings the listener back down to earth. The magic is over. At this point you start to think that, maybe, the tracks aren't as good as you thought they were.
"Bam Bam" has a dope sample, however, the rhythm is a bit subdued and cheap, there's a slow drum and the performers are dudes I've never heard, Red Café, Mims. Still Termanology. I've listened to this track four times and I still don't understand what Red Café did. Only on the fifth listen of this song, I started to understand that his verse wasn't very badly mixed with the rhythm, but damn, the boy didn't commit himself here, he spits light-hearted, lazy, syncopated. The others aren't much better than him, Mims looks like a faded and moldy photocopy of him, and Termanology is completely uninspired. This is perhaps the most incredible and absurd note of this track: his friend is debuting with a studio album full of talented veterans that cannot be ignored for long by audiences and critics alike, he's present in a third of the whole effort and if he works hard, this same LP could take him out of the life of the underground-mixtape circuit listened to by no one forever, and what he does?!? He spit without energy, in a lazy, soft, surrendering way. Never inspired. It's absurd, totally absurd.
On track number eight, Termanology does his spot number five: jazzy beat with good samples and almost perfect drum. Jadakiss to give energy to the whole song, then Uncle Murda decent and hardcore, with average style, Sev-One I think is the girl who provides the female rnb hook. Term hasn't woken up yet, then the track is closed by the rapper of LOX. After several good and discreet songs, "Back Against the Wall" brings back the quality of the entire record: jazzy soundscape typical of this edition, skeletal, slow and dusty drum, raw, dirty, underground rhythm, smooth and fast delivery of Royce da 5'9" that cleans the drum machine with a flow dope, simple hook with synthesized guitar riffs for the bridge, Mega closes, with a fantastic flowing rapping style, in the middle of a chopped and looped sample chipmunk soul in the background. Short-pearl cut. I think Biggie is sampled in the tenth choice's intro-hook, scratched, great samples, simple boom bap, inside two protégés of Lawrence's beatmaker, Termanology and Reks, the second is definitely better than the other one.
"No Mistakes Allowed" is a posse with several artists: dark samples, slow drum, the veteran Doug E. Fresh is pretty honest, the others perform mediocre up to Esoteric. In fact, I didn't realize there was Esoteric here: the Army of the Pharaohs rapper delivers with a syncopated and energetic rapping style, smooth, good, perhaps even better than Doug E. Fresh, definitely lifts the cut from mediocrity. After the Sparks skit, we arrive at the second part of the album: it tends to always be the weak one in hip-hop records and this album doesn't seem to want to make exceptions, however, the tracklist should partly console. The beginning is certainly difficult: so far, I don't think Statik has missed a single rhythm, however, in "Punch Out" the quality drops and the error arrives. Extravagant boom bap with curious sample, probably from a video game, generic drum, Big Shug by the Gang Starr Foundation delivers with mediocre style in the first solo track of the entire edition.
Lil Fame has a kind of very short choice on a jazzy rhythm, with good female rnb samples, the boy doesn't disappoint and leads the way to the third consecutive solo cut of the album, even the last one: "Big Dreamers", performed by Reks. Lawrence's MC is arguably the best of Statik's close associates, and he makes a discreet piece over a good jazzy beat. "No Holding Back" is similar to the track with Freeway and Cassidy, in this sense: also, this track was born intended to be an easy banger of the LP, however, it isn't for a completely opposite reason compared to the song of the other two rappers. The producer offers one of his less successful beats: jazzy boom bap with annoying chipmunk soul samples (squeaky on the hook) and decent drum. The MCs chosen are also too competent, they're two former The Firm, and they collaborate on the track a few months after the end of the internal feud in the group: AZ dominates with his unstoppable slow-flowing dope style, and Cormega, among the four original rappers of the supergroup, here proves to live up to AZ's flow. What a shame for the beat.
Slum Village are blessed with a good jazzy production, Elzhi in particular stands out positively and sends the tune directly into the best moments of the tape. Song number eighteen has a good chipmunk soul sample on jazzy rhythm to accommodate the verses of Evidence (in shape) and The Alchemist, so "It's Over Now" features Termanology and AG: light jazzy production, great samples, simple hook, slow drum, light slow delivery of Term, at his latest presence in the project, closes the DITC rapper with a not much better rapping style. The penultimate song is a fairly forgettable posse, despite the youthful deliveries of Reks and Skyzoo. The album is closed by "Did What We Had to Do (Showoff Mix)", a posse with KRS-One, Large Professor and Larry Cheeba: great jazzy rhythm, skeletal boom bap, quick and tight vibrant drum, simple hook, KRS is charged since the second number one and dominates the cut with one of his chanting style, reggae-sque, syncopated and flowing, slow, dope.
Produced by Statik ShowOff and Boston's independent label Brick Records, the album is quite coherent, solid, flawed: some performers don't disappoint, others aren't inspired, they're not fit or they're simply not rappers. The record stretches beyond the listening time and, even if deprived of completely wrong rhythms, it soon becomes irregular and with some smudging: the interlude to DJ Khaled is a horrible, grotesque crazy slip. Good debut, in any case, East Coast boom bap fans will find several interesting moments.
Highlights: "Stop, Look, Listen", "Back Against the Wall", "Got Me Goin' (Hip Hop)", "Did What We Had to Do".
Rating: 7.5/10.
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