9th Wonder — Zion II

Second chapter of the "Zion" studio album series, inaugurated by hip-hop producer 9th Wonder the year before.

The disc is opened by a soul sample of Carolyn Franklin's "Dad", the producer places a slow and pounding drum on it. A boom bap follows with regular drum and melodic female sample in the background. The third cut is good, jazzy rhythm with thumping and syncopated drum machine, decent sample, followed by a sample of Heaven & Heart's "Nature's Miracle", which sets the tone for the fourth boom bap, with eclectic drum. "INeverKnew" is a first slip by 9th Wonder: boom bap with slow drum machine and melodic female soul sample, unfortunately the beatmaker places an annoying sound on it that ruins the whole instrumental. The sixth track has a better, lean and energetic rhythm, with a slow pounding drum and an honest sample. The following instrumental is at the height of the best in its simplicity, slow pounding drum, good sample.

In "GirlUFine", the boy plays with the sampler, dirty dusty drum and slow, battered sample in the background. Track number nine boasts a discrete skeletal rhythm, with a minimal and regular drum, followed by a generic rhythm. "ChunkySoul" and "TownBidness" both feature a boom bap with slow pounding drum and a good female melodic sample, while "CloserToo" is one of the best rhythms of the edition: splendid melodic female soulful sample from Rapsody's "Complacent", boom bap with lean drum slow and pounding, perfect. 9th Wonder keeps a Rapsody sample also for his next instrumental, "YoYoBoogie", another high point of this long edition: sample of "My Song", which in turn samples "Ex-Factor" by Lauryn Hill, boom bap, eclectic drum. "BobbiSoul" is a short cut, skinny boom bap with slow pounding drum and decent piano samples. Song number sixteen seems to be the first of a weaker section of the record, due to a minimal rhythm with mediocre samples, but the sound of the following cut is slightly better and that of "CouldMeetYou" is among the best: light and soft boom bap, with wonderful samples, a light piano and a light female melodic in the background, from "If I Could Meet You" by Dynamic Superiors, to accompany a perfect, light and slow drum.

Track number 19 has a minimal rhythm with honest drum and mediocre samples, "FatAlbertAndRudy" boasts a better rhythm, with good horn samples from HaLo's "Figure It Out", and light, pounding drum machine. The next instrumental boasts a raw rhythm with slow hard pounding drum and good piano, as well as a melodic female soul sample from Michael Wycoff's "Do Ya Think". "ToHoldYou" features a minimal rhythm with slow pounding hard drum and decent sample, while "TheNeoCole" is slightly lower, with a generic sound. Track 24 has a lo-fi rhythm with light, bouncy agile drum and decent samples, so "StillStanding" has an essential drum and an average rhythm. In one of the most suffering sections of the second chapter of Zion, 9th Wonder puts another savior-cut, "SirBlue": almost five minutes long track, boom bap composed of light and regular drum, elegant piano that gives support in the background, together with a melodic female soul sample of "Midnight Blue" by Laura Nyro.

The next cut boasts a bap boom with skeletal drum and sci-fi samples, I believe. Instrumental number 28 features a rhythm with regular drum and male melodic samples, while "GottaGetOver" has a jazzy rhythm with decent horn samples, this is a bit of a rough job here. "NeverHathSeen" is better, boom bap with thumping syncopated drum and melodic female soul sample. Track 31 is shorter, musical carpet with eclectic lively drum and whispered male sample. "InLuvWithU" features an energetic boom bap, tight drum pounding, good low key piano sample and soulful female sample from Jerry Butler's "So In Love With You". Another soulful female sample is the protagonist in the following cut, "TellMeNow", among the high points of the album: energetic soundscape, excellent pounding regular drum, the female sample makes room for a light elegant piano loop, before returning towards the end of the cut. The arrival of "EmmanuelAfterDark" suggests that a section entirely composed of female soul samples could be born: this one comes from "God Black / Black God" which the producer himself made with Murs. Skeletal boom bap, lively and eclectic drum, horn, comes out a velvety, energetic and smoothness boom bap, excellent production.

The instrumental number 35 isn't up to the previous ones, despite yet another female soul sample: 9th Wonder's lean rhythm features a dry, slow, pounding drum, and an annoying second sample that ruins the choice. "SeeTheSun" has a better sound, minimal rhythm, with slow and pounding dry drum and good melodic female soul sample. "WillieDynamite" is quite weak, due to the samples and a generic rhythm. Two boom baps follow, with slow and essential drums, the first one features a female soul sample, while the other one boasts a discreet male soul sample looped in the background. 9th Wonder brings out an uptempo boom bap for "TheHardline", with another female soul sample supporting an honest drum. A rhythm follows with decent samples and an eclectic drum, before the manufacturer's latest crash: dry, slow and pounding drum, good piano but too distant in the background, and melodic female soul sample obscured by a too strong drum, bad mixing here. The effort ended at rhythm number 43, with a slow and light drum and the latest melodic female soulful sample of the edition.

9th Wonder makes a long tape of 104 minutes of listening, divided into 43 instrumentals, most of two minutes. The quality of the minimal rhythms is slightly higher than in the opening chapter of his series. The first part (1-8) is decent, with good traits and a few weak cuts, managing to improve in the following minutes with some of the best instrumentals in the second part (9-15). The third section of the edition (16-25) is weak due to several generic rhythms and mediocre samples, despite some choices up to the best tracks. Here's a fourth part of tape (26-34) which is the best and one of the happiest of all the records of the "Zion" series: there's not a single weak rhythm in the minimal selection made by 9th Wonder, and the female soulful samples chosen drag the instrumentals. Finally, the tape is closed by a very weak fifth section (35-43), easily forgotten: it makes it clear that the tape had to be closed at 34 tracks, saving twenty minutes of generic music and closing the tape at 80 minutes, which would still have been acceptable and of good quality. Instead, the producer exaggerates with the use of rhythms and samples that are all the same and inflates the album up to 104 minutes. It could be his best tape in the "Zion" series: in any case, I don't recommend listening to it, there are too many songs and too many minutes, there's a greater number of honest instrumentals rather than the first chapter, but it's not worth listening to, if you're not a fan or a completist.

Highlights: "CloserToo", "YoYoBoogie", "CouldMeetYou", "SirBlue", "TellMeNow", "EmmanuelAfterDark".

Rating: 7/10.