9th Prince — One Man Army

On album number four, you know what to expect from Ninth Prince. Thirteen tracks, forty minutes, BP production, Wu guests. Some rhythms come down from the hands of Soul Professa, Lord Beats, Shawneci, Spanish Jose and a trinity of Wu-Elements consisting of RZA, Bronze Nazareth and True Master. Nobody has the rhythm of the year, the loop created by Bronze might make you think the opposite after a couple of plays, but from the third it won't. It could also happen with the production of True Master for the bonus song, which is the second best. On Steelz, I don't say anything. Among the guests, there are RZA himself and Frukwan of Gravediggaz, Kinetic and Dom Pachino of Killarmy.

Reading thug lyrics in front of a mic over East Coast boom bap beats, the guy created a more coherent solo discography than several Wu-Tang rappers: he's not doing anything, he's not innovating, he's not bringing something new to the table, he's not changing the game in any sense, he's saying things that you could easily say too in a way so simple, easy and sure to make it sound amateurish, on fairly normal rhythms. His texts are his usual texts, and it's a shame that he can't find anything new to say compared to his other records, because in his personal background there are certainly several interesting stories: 9th Prince tries to do this kind of track in "I Remember", a take on 2Pac's "Old School", there are several references to the artist here, but the piece is totally undeveloped and never deepened from the lyrical point of view, featuring a Spanish Jose beat which is nothing exceptional.

The cover is similar to that of the other albums released with Babygrande: in 2008 the label doesn't trust and for the reissue of Ninth Prince second LP it places a "Killarmy Presents" in evidence, while two years later, for the reissue of the debut, it decides to put the rapper's name twice on the cover. 9th Prince wears camouflage and places a title that represents his group's legacy, as the design approaches that of the reissue of his first CD, placing a semi-hidden reference to the Wu-Tang just above where you are looking. Also distributed by iHip-Hop, listening isn't essential. 6/10.