Fifth episode in five consecutive years of 9th Wonder's "Zion" series of albums. Canadian rapper Ian Kelly offers a few bars in the first five cuts, the rest are entirely instrumental.
"One Time" is the first track: intro, boom bap with dry hopping drum, honest sample, colorless fast delivery by Ian Kelly. The rapper also provides bars in the following choice, on a dry and tight drum with a dark female melodic sample. In "Breakmoney", the performer spits something on a dry and skeletal drum. The producer creates an essential rhythm for "Ebony" with eclectic drum and syncopated delivery by Ian Kelly, who performs again in "Everynight", for the fifth song in a row: it's the last track with the performer, who fails to put a clear imprint on the project, on a decent boom bap composed of hard and tight drum and melodic sample. With the release of Ian Kelly, inevitably, the record improves. Track number six boasts a decent rhythm, with a vibrant drum machine; it's a fairly generic instrumental. Even the next one doesn't stand out, then comes "Burdensoul": discreet boom bap, regular and hard drum, female soul sample combined with a distant piano.
Track number nine boasts an honest boom bap, consisting of a regular hard pounding drum, decent female melodic sample and good piano. "Cinderellasoul" is similar, with a distant piano and a male melodic sample, but not equally punchy. 9th Wonder offers a taut synth line for the next beat with decent samples and a lively, eclectic and tight drum machine. Track twelve is lit by a chipmunk soul sample, while "Downlowsoul" is one of the less successful rhythms, with a snare drum and mediocre samples. A decent instrumental follows, before "Daddysrevenge", solid boom bap with robust drum and melodic samples. "E40child" has strange samples and a poor drum, so, the following instrumental features a male soul sample on a minimal drum machine. "Ebonywoman" features a male soul sample and tight drum, anticipating one of the edition's easy highlights, "Earlyheresoul": light jazzy musical carpet, light drum, clean and polite, it remains aloof at a distance, while excellent samples follow one another. "Firesoul" has a good light jazzy rhythm with a tight drum and nice samples, and is followed by another noteworthy instrumental: boom bap jazzy, lean slow drum, good samples, short and excellent rhythm.
A barely decent choice follows, then in "Ghettolove" comes a lacerating and tight drum to accompany a female soul sample. "Haywoodsoul" has melodic vibes, a lacerating drum and a few distant piano keys. Track 25 is similar to the previous one, with random piano keys, while the next one has an oriental sound, with guitar riff and a poor drum. 9th Wonder keeps oriental vibes in the next instrumental, with almost annoying samples and a regular drum. "Laurychopsoul" offers ballad vibes: excellent female soulful sample, ethereal-heavenly vibes, slow and light drum; it seems to be destined to become the best rhythm of the edition, however, the drum machine becomes grumpy, loud and lacerating all of a sudden, and 9th Wonder ruins the cut by chopping the sample, instead of letting it breathe quietly. Track 28 is the longest of the tape, at 5 minutes: soulful sample chopped and looped, tight slow pounding drum, elegant piano chopped and looped.
The intentions of the producer are clear: he wants to remake "The Gambler", here he doesn't succeed completely, even if this is an acceptable attempt. 9th Wonder's inventiveness seems to be over. "Lovedbyyou" has a slow lacerating drum and a tightly looped male sample in the background, so the guy leaves room for a relentless and exhausting drum in the next cut. "Magicallife" has a cheap and slow drum, with a female soul sample replaced by a slow and relaxed horn. There's a female soul sample on track 33 too, so the beatmaker puts a messy, mediocre rhythm on "Needusoul" and brings out glossy samples for "Nitegroovesoul". The rhythm improves when he provides a great boom bap for "Nipseyfallinlove", with a light and slow drum combined with a beautiful female soul sample. The next three beats are similar, being composed of a tight drum and melodic samples, "Onthewall9th" has ethereal vibes, but somehow it sounds not-too-good. 9th Wonder still slips with his rhythms at attempt number 40, then casually finds his way again: lean boom bap, beautiful melodic soul female sample, light and slow drum. It's the last really successful beat of the edition.
"Powersoul" isn't at that level, while "Sidebysidejam" depends on a classic sample on a funky boom bap. "Slowdownfonksoul" has the distinction of being the only energetic production of the tape, with a vibrant and quick drum and a chopped and looped female soul sample. The following track has an extravagant soundtrack, and "Starbucksoul" doesn't impress. "Taurusbooggie" is easily the worst rhythm on the record: the producer superimposes two drums, but his experimental attempt is bad. "Talkingangels" has a better sound due to the melodic female soul sample on a sturdy drum. Cut 49 features a tight drum and decent samples, including a male melodic soul sample. "Thiswaysoul" boasts a soul beat with tight drum, chopped and looped male melodic sample and background piano to brighten up the beat. There are two others soul rhythm, the last one has chopped and looped female melodic samples on a pounding drum. In "Youmustogosoul", 9th Wonder offers an instrumental with vibes ballads, melodic samples and a too hard drum, finally, the disc is closed by a female soul sample left to breathe on a decent slow drum, at track number 54.
9th Wonder shoves 54 short cuts for a total of about 95 minutes of listening: it's not something a person can really put up with. The first part (1-13) is quite weak and doesn't start well: the beatmaker provides some of his milder beats to support Ian Kelly's generic bars, who doesn't do anything to put his own cuts between the highs of this exorbitant project. The first five cuts are easily forgotten, when the rapper leaves room for instrumentals, the sound improves, but not that much. In the second fraction of the tape (14-27), the music is better, but the disc is still irregular and has some poor rhythm. When 9th Wonder combines a jazzy boom bap with a robust drum and female soul sample, he makes his finest soundscapes. The third section (28-41) boasts a greater regularity and consistency in the sound quality offered by the beatmaker, nevertheless, there are no particularly memorable rhythms, until, on the tail of the fraction, the producer finds one of the best beats, almost by chance. Finally, the fourth and last part of the CD (42-54) is made up of more or less discrete rhythms, with some slips. Overall, 9th Wonder presents another series of his scraps: there are three instrumentals worth listening to. 3 out of 54. This means that over 94% of his work here is forgettable and generic. This means that over 94% of his work here is forgettable and generic. After five years and such a poor streak of albums, I think I'm going to downsize 9th Wonder on my list of favorite producers: 221 rhythms on these five records, 200 circa are all the same and generic, at best good, and only 19 are worth listening to. He could have made a good mixtape with these and leave the others on the back burner. Not recommended.
Highlights: "Earlyheresoul", "Ghettojesussoul", "Seeitallbeforesoul".
Rating: 5/10.
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