Even the year of this mixtape's release isn't taken for granted. Probably, it's 2008 when the first effort of Samuel Craig Murray aka Kinetic 9 aka Beretta 9, a rapper native of Steubenville, Ohio, later moved to Long Island, New York, comes out. Killarmy member, Wu-Tang affiliate.
Originally, the tracks are 28, then reduced to 20 in the CD version of 2019 and to 15 in the vinyl of 2020, these two editions for Black Stone of Mecca. I listened to the 20-track version. Production credits aren't available and that's not a big deal, there's only one good beat. Guests are more or less all affiliated with the Killa Beez: RZA and Inspectah Deck of Wu-Tang Clan, Shogun and Islord of Killarmy, Hell Razah and Prodigal Sunn of Sunz of Man, Rugged Monk of Black Knights, North Star, The Orphanage, Midaz, 71Raw, Co-Deez, Contribution X, Chi King, and Leggezin Fin.
It might be one of Kinetic's good tapes, but from the first five pieces you wouldn't know: intro, short freestyle, two North Star songs with bouncy music first and ridiculous then, in between is a 7-minute track where the rhythm breathes half the time, for some reason. Christ Bearer and Kinetic's hardcore rap sounds a little tired in these first few minutes. The RZA arrives in "Shady" and brings with it one of the good beats of this mixtape: dark boom bap, background piano keys, dry and hard drum machine. The Abbot's delivery is cumbersome, slow, rough, Beretta 9 raps more inspired than usual. "Showdown" has an economic synthesized production, the elements that make up the beat are scarce, inside there are Hell Razah, Lord Superb and maybe even Shogun, they can't raise a difficult rhythm.
Another freestyle, then arrives the best beat of the tape in "10th Anniversary": flute loop, dark elegant piano, dirty midtempo drum, the rhythm is approachable and supports rapper Killarmy's subdued delivery, then closes French duo Co-Deez with great flow. Shogun keeps things hardcore in the next song, then the production drops in quality down to "Sinister Chamber", which features an unbearable beat. The tape rises in the final with a couple of discreet choices. "Shaolin Music Ma Miouz" in which Kinetic spits hardcore along with Inspectah Deck and Co-Deez, and the final posse "Afro Killa Beez" with Chi King, Leggezin Fin, P Sunn and Shogun, to restore some energy to this disk.
Made up of twenty tracks and over an hour of listening, it's a messy tape, a long way from Killarmy's best projects. Not recommended. The vinyl version reduced to 15 pieces isn't that bad, maybe almost sufficient, completists could check that out, I'm sure it's somewhere on bandcamp.
Rating: 5/10.
No comments:
Post a Comment