Eighth effort by American Poets 2099, West Coast group affiliated with the huge Killa Beez movement.
The group consists of Pro the Leader, Nova-Kane, Atlantis Scrolls and Holocaust. Production is mainly done by Excalibur, which is part of the Mysterious affiliate group, along with other affiliates of the group like Ace Gauntlit and Prime Music, Killa Beez Solomon Childs, Kevlaar 7, Skarekrow, and external producers The Alchemist, G Swizz, Dr G and St. Louis. The tracklist is a problem. Guests are mostly Killa Beez: Killa Sin and Dom Pachino of Killarmy, Timbo King of Royal Fam, Heaven Razah of Sunz of Man, Tragedy Khadafi of Black Market Militia, Christ Bearer of North Star, Cappadonna of Wu-Tang Clan, Solomon Childs and Shaka Amazulu the 7th of School of the Gifted, Young Dirty Bastard, M-Eighty, Armor of God, and external guests White Lotus, Mysterious, Masta of Ceremoniez, Casual, Irie-1, Red Kool Aid, Dilila Paz, Rakaa of Dilated Peoples and LMNO.
Out of eighteen tracks, there are two in which all four members of the group perform together. The first is "Poets Known Globally", the only one without guests, not memorable: hard downtempo drum, gothic samples, slow rap. The second is "Thieves In The Cut", with Tragedy Khadafi, on a better than expected musical carpet provided by Ace Gauntlit, melodic soul sample, elegant piano, honest horn. The first track is one of the strong points of the tape: boom bap with tight drum and obsessive sample, Pro the Leader, Nova-Kane and Dom Pachino are discreet, then Killa Sin goes away smooth, fluid, energetic, has another pace. In the middle section, tracks 5 to 14, there's little memorable: a solo each for guests Masta of Ceremoniez and Irie-1, both with an amateur rap on a generic production, and contributions from guests such as Timbo King and YDB are limited.
The Royal Fam leader has a short verse and a hook, the other MC ends up on a good cinematic / cartoonish Excalibur beat, but I guess he just performs the hook. The Mysterious group also has a solo cut with one of the best productions on this record, weak drum downtempo and ethereal sample, however the rap is not as good as it should be. The latest tracks feature Cappadonna, Solomon Childs and Heaven Razah, however the chosen beats are soft and feeble, decent in their most inspired moments.
18 tracks, about 63 minutes: it's an excessive quantity of material in relation to the quality proposed, with a third of tracks less it would have been a more accessible tape, but probably not decent yet, because between production and rapping the tape is far from what you should expect from a Killa Beez release.
Rating: 5/10.
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