This ShowOff Records mixtape, realized by Statik Selektah and J.F.K., is a tribute to the Celtics and is entirely a reunion between friends, with Termanology, Reks, Slaine and Kali as main guests.
The title track opens, hardcore heavy boom bap, followed by "What the Streets Want", boom bap on which comes the first guest, Termanology, offering his bars with a good flow, simple hook, in a first 1982 choice. The third cut is the first posse, with Reks, Kali & Termanology: Reks leads the way, simple hook looped and scratched by Statik, Kali and JFK have a shaky delivery because the rhythm doesn't help them, it's a meandering boom bap, not even Termano manages to control it. "The Blackout" is one of Statik's finest musical carpets, classic jazzy boom bap, with rnb hook, fit delivery by JFK. A light rhythm follows, JFK is joined by Easy Money, then boom bap with sample soul, JFK has a good flow, Reks easily overtakes it, even overbeat, in the second verse.
He also remains in the track number seven, with Eay Money and Allas guests, spitting on an alternative jazzy-soul carpet, Statik takes a sample from the last bar of Snoop Dogg in his first verse of "The Next Episode", Dr. Dre banger. The tape proves faithful to Boston also in the eighth choice, when together with Termanology comes Bell Biv DeVoe, a rnb group that offers a great hook and outro, for the energetic hardcore jazzy beat of Statik. JFK performs calmly on "17", jazzy-soul boom bap, with a good chorus and background taken directly from the Frank Sinatra's "It Was a Very Good Year" sample: Mac Miller kills the song with a second smooth verse.
Track number ten is a posse with Kali, decent, Jon Connor, dominating and clearly the MVP here, and Sonic, trying to match Connor, without success; Statik Selektah good Christmas jazzy rhythm, with alt rock bridge and scratched hook. A posse with different performers follows, but with a similar final result: good boom bap jazzy, Reks seems insecure and wobbly, with a stammering flow, his delivery has obvious holes, then Steven King to bring the song into resuscitation, JFK is average, guide finding a lot of holes and rough sections on his path to the clinic, where Slaine, with a better flow than the others, definitely revives the track; at the end of the operation, Jaysaun decrees a raw permit to leave the facility and recover. But it'll have to come back for the check periods because as posse is still weak. The posse section ends with "I Believe Thats Me", the same performers as before, without Jaysaun: the rhythm is even worse, Reks is weak and still quite poor, Slaine has to pick up the song again, but his flow doesn't has the same energy as before, it's like the beat actually took it away. Steven King starts better, but then he gets lost, JFK closes, for some reason he sounds better than the others on this bleak and decadent production.
On track number thirteen comes the second solo by JFK in the whole album: boom bap grease, the scratches want to remind us that a "Preemo" is about to start, but no. Perfect carpet for JFK, sad, gloomy in his false glee, he delivers a couple of lines and flows fast, fluid. In "Let's Build Og Mix", JFK changes record and delivers hardcore on a jazzy-hardcore rhythm, Wais P picks up the mic and delivers fit with a flowing style; hook with sample by Nas, closes Slaine who saves the song with a fairly quiet flow, instead of killing it. "Autographs" it's a Reks solo, Statik jazzy boom bap, good hardcore delivery. The following piece features JFK, Reks, and Termanology, on the umpteenth jazzy beat by Statik Selektah: background soul sample towering over JFK's weak delivery, the other two are easily better, even if the hook is to be revised. "111" is JFK's third and last solo, pretty weak on an acceptable production, here he abandons his tape. The last two tracks are an electro-techno-dance beat featuring Termanology and the latest posse of the mixtape, "Gotta Go", with Kali and Dstroy having to mend a sad boom bap gutted by Slaine in the first verse.
JFK is practically never left alone during these 19 tracks and he has just 3 solos, but in reality, he's missing from at least half the album and often delivers in a dull way, letting most of the record be pulled by the other guys and by the rhythms chosen by the producer: in particular, Reks seems to be the protagonist of the tape, while Statik saves the other part of the mixtape with good choices behind the keyboards, which is why the whole project is quite accessible and easy to listen to. The tape is curious if you have ever wondered if JFK can spit, otherwise it's not an essential listening: if you want to know the answer without wasting an hour to understand which songs he's doing and which he's not, the answer is no.
Highlights: "Fist of Pain", "Up Every Night", "17", "Autographs".
Rating: 6/10.
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