Criminals in the Army — C.I.A.

Kinetic & Shogun of Killarmy emerge to bless the year with a typically Wu effort, archived in the Killa Beez drawers for some time and which owns 2013 vibes: lyrics and rhythms are provided mainly by the two interpreters, the delivery of Shogun is smooth and clear, while Kinetic tries to tear the cuts with a syncopated and irregular style, sometimes so much rough that it clashes with the rhythm. The production is mainly composed of the minimal, rhythmic and tight boom bap jazzy, with rare variations: on this type of sounds, the guests manage to give some twist to the monotony of the effort.

In "Criminals in the Army", 9th Prince arrives with his raw flow on the minimal and simple boom bap jazzy made by Shogun; lively female sample looped tight in the background, joyful and positive, Kinetic's dark and rough delivery that clashes with rhythm and sample, good Shogun smooth delivery. Killarmy partially meet in "Briefcase Killer", except Killa Sin: on this frenetic, jazzy beat, Dom Pachino is quite fluent, unlike Islord & 9th Prince. The tenth song has a good frenetic and minimal jazzy rhythm, it seems to have a Wu-Tang style typical of the 2000s, tight and dirty: then go to see the credits and there is RZA in production, good delivery of the two rappers of Killarmy, and functional hook.

"Air 'Em Out" features an excellent jazzy boom bap provided by Shaka Amazulu the 7th (School of the Gifted), Ghost Face Killer opens up powerful and brings out a smooth and clear verse, dope; the Killarmy are good too. Another good track follows with a penetrating synth on jazzy beat and female soulful sample looped in the background to welcome P Sunn who drops his verse with a calm and flowing style on this boom bap jazzy midtempo lo-fi (rare interesting production by Kinetic in this record): if you wonder how a Killa Beez sounds on a Griselda à la Daringer rhythm, this track is for you. Among the several noteworthy joints, I tend to exclude the discreet "Leakwater" preferring the final posse (not too better, to be truthful): typical Killa Beez soundscape, boom bap jazzy tight, rhythmic, dirty with dark soulful female sample looped tight in the background, comes the Killarmy (Dom Pachino, Rubbabandz, Islord and 9th Prince) to assault the rhythm together with School of the Gifted (Shaka Amazulu the 7th, Solomon Childs) in an honest song.

Highlights: "Criminals in the Army", "How Can You Be Dumb?", "Air 'Em Out", "The Dopeness", "The Gifted Briefcase".

Rating: 7/10.