Joell Ortiz & Illmind — Human

Collaborative album between the Brooklyn rapper Joell Ortiz and the Jersey City producer Illmind. It's the fourth studio album for the member of Slaughterhouse, Cubeatz co-produces four tracks, G-Koop co-produces one track. Emilio Rojas, Bodega Bamz, Chris Rivers, Father Dude, and Jared Evan partecipate as guests. I wish I liked the LP more, because you know, Ortiz is talented and when he wants he has the energy to do hardcore rap, but Illmind suddenly seems unable to make beats, he only hits one rhythm out of eleven. Production is sparse and minimal all the time, rapper's delivery is often average, lukewarm, rarely hardcore. He looks for personal themes, but the disc ends up being a little less personal than "Layers" was without "Tabernacle": there are few excerpts in that sense, and much more bravado and generic themes around the ghetto, alcohol, weed, women, thug ish, violence and crime.

The disc improves in its final section, with the arrival of the posse "Latino Pt. 2": Illmind offers an almost decent rhythm, not as bad as the previous ones. Rochester rapper Emilio Rojas has an honest style and leads the way for Bodega Bamz, Manhattan's MC slices the track with inspired, confident and hardcore rap. Unfortunately, after him, Chris Rivers from the Bronx destroys the rhythm with a fast, energetic and spectacular flow, finally Ortiz, perhaps too relaxed. In "Who Woulda Knew" you can find the first beat that Illmind guessed in the whole album, probably helped by G-Koop: livable midtempo drum, female melodic sample, Ortiz chooses a slow and fluid delivery style, but understated, and there's a sung hook. "Bad Santa" is one of the most personal songs of the tape, however, Illmind's choice behind the keyboards doesn't reward Ortiz's style and there's a fairly phoned and useless Jared Evan autotune hook. Closes an outro in which Ortiz still runs well on a cheap production.

The album is released by Roseville Music Group and Yaowa! Nation: composed of 11 tracks and 39 minutes of listening, the tape reaches the top 20 in the rap chart and the top 25 among independent projects, selling well. Overall, the album is underwhelming, Illmind's shoddy production never fits in with Joell Ortiz's flow, which performs undertone, uninspired. 5/10.