About a year after the previous one, 9th Wonder publishes the fourth edition of his "Zion" series. Unlike the previous one, the album is exclusively instrumental.
The first cut features a skeletal rhythm typical of the producer, with skeletal and tight drum pounding and female soul samples. A short cut follows with minimal beat, tight drum, male soul sample and video game sample. "AStarSoul" is the first long instrumental of the record, with over four minutes: 9th Wonder places a female soul sample, spoken skit, hard slow pounding drum machine and a good sax sample that livens up the song. The fourth choice has a decent sample and a vibrant slow drum, followed by a lean rhythm with a low slow drum and a female rnb sample. The sixth song is one of the most successful of the edition: minimal boom bap, light slow pounding drum machine, excellent piano sample combined with an excellent chopped and looped female soul sample. "BlicketyBlank" maintains this solid level of quality: boom bap skeletal, light slow and eclectic drum, sax sample combined with chopped and looped female soul samples. "BlueFroSoul" features a slow tight drum and a discreet sample, followed by a skeletal musical carpet with a hard, pounding slow drum and a soulful female sample.
Here comes a heavy and very hard slow drum for the tenth choice with female soul samples and a second honest sample to compose this minimal rhythm. "BoatRockerSoul" is a better choice: short cut, lean production, slow pounding drum, good melodic female soul sample. "MyGenerationSoul" presents a boom bap with lean and slow drum, hard essential pounding, excellent melodic soul sample. "Too Late" is the last good track of the section: minimal boom bap, slow drum pounding downtempo, good samples, good female soul sample. Cut number 14 boasts a slow and tearing drum and good samples, while the next track has a slow and hard low drum and a decent sample: this track inaugurates one of the most tasteless and poor sections of the "Zion" series. "TakeCareSoul" has mediocre samples with a bad, slow and poor drum. The next song sounds better, however the sample is still mediocre, and the drum is tearing and cheap. There's a downtempo drum in "YotaMusicSoul", but it's low, slow and pounding, coupled with a decent sample.
"Control" features a poor drum with female soul samples that brings the cut back beyond the threshold of sufficiency. Two weak instrumentals follow, with a poor drum. "YeahYouSoul" has a slow, pounding drum and a decent female soul sample, so "PimpStroll" is one of the weakest tracks on the record, with an annoying sample on a bad drum. Track number 26 is composed of a simple sample and a lacerating slow drum, followed by a poor instrumental, with an annoying sample and a distant slow drum. "SayBabySoul" is the first discreet instrumental after a particularly weak section: boom bap skeletal, decent drum, slow and tight, female soul sample. "LoveAffairSoul" is even better: minimal boom bap, discreet and sparkling lively drum, female soul sample. Beat number 30 is extended to four minutes, consisting of a slow and tight drum and a chopped and looped female soul sample. "ShowYouTheWay" has a glossy rhythm with fast drum, almost disco-dance vibes, chopped and looped female soul samples. The following cut is formed by an eclectic, tight and skeletal drum with female soul samples.
"But You" is one of the best instrumentals of the project, a rarity in the fourth chapter of the "Zion" series: slow and tight drum, chopped and looped female soul samples, then breaks with a glossy rhythm. Light slow boom bap, soulful female sample let to breathe freely and accompanied by a sax sample. Excellent beat. "GetYouJammySoul" is one of the worst instrumentals on the album: boom bap, weak skeletal drum machine, mix with video game samples and female soul samples. The result is obscene: the beatmaker continues to step out of his sphere of comfort and competence, failing all the time as in this case. "ThisSideoTheGameSoul" boasts a boom bap approaching DITC style, with a slow hard drum, distant melodic soulful sample in the background and Christmas bells. Cut 36 boasts a beat consisting of hard and slow drum, good horn and female soul sample from a classic, "U Sparklin'" by Rapsody, which in turn samples "Sparkle" by Cameo. The following choice is poorer than the previous ones, with a lean hard pounding drum and decent sample, while "LoveSongSoul" has a better rhythm: raw production, lean slow drum, soulful female sample combined with light jazzy sample.
"TriumphSoul" is the worst song on the record: weak rhythm, annoying sample combined with shrill soul samples, poor drum. Horrible decision by 9th Wonder to place this beat for four minutes, I didn't understand his intention here, if I take away the obvious one of annoying more than usual. "CountemUp" has a minimal beat, slow pounding hard drum machine and decent samples, including a distant chipmunk soul one. The next instrumental features a slow pounding hard drum and distant female soul sample, while "ChrisDreaminSoul" is a bad choice, made up of a poor drum and a horrible sample. It's followed by "DreamTimeSoul", simply perfect: excellent production, perfect midtempo slow pounding drum, samples extracted from "Juicy" and "Ten Crack Commandments" by Biggie, "Shut 'Em Down" by Public Enemy and from Martin Luther King's speech. "EverySoul" boasts a minimal soundscape with eclectic vibrant drum and rockin' vibes combined with a chopped and looped female soul sample. "FallDownSoul" has a minimal rhythm, decent fast tight drum and ridiculously annoying sample. It closes "FallOuttaLove", mediocre instrumental with slow drum pounding and a decent female soul sample.
9th Wonder makes 46 short cuts for a total of almost 96 minutes of listening. The first fraction of the project (1-7) starts badly, with two weak tracks, then the sound quality improves and moves on to a second section (8-15) that is discreet and solid: the first third of the album is quite coherent and good from a musical and qualitative point of view, then the disc begins the usual annoying ups and downs typical of this series created by 9th Wonder. The third section (16-27) is one of the weakest of all "Zion", with several simply decent and bad cuts, also in this case the choice of the producer proves to be coherent, inserting in the belly of the tape some of his less successful instrumentals, all forgettable and useless. The album improves during its fourth part (28-36), with other solid instrumentals, one of the worst rhythms of the edition and probably also the best one. Finally, the disc ends with a leaping fifth section (37-46), with several sensational strokes, the worst instrumental of the disc and also one of the best in the midst of so many forgettable rhythms.
The absence of rapping on this tape was meant to make it quite coherent and solid, however, 9th Wonder decides to place an infinity of bad rhythms and sinks the project with a length prohibitive for any sane listener: the really good instrumentals in this project are a fifth of the album, 9 out of 46. Few. With those nine, the boy would have built a solid tape, but after four editions, going to face this length, despite the brevity of the tracks, makes no sense in relation to the overall low-quality of the product. Not recommended.
Highlights: "But You", "DreamTimeSoul".
Rating: 5.2/10.
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