Brooklyn Zu rapper Buddha Monk arrives at the sixth chapter of his "Zu-Chronicles" series. The album is entirely produced by the author himself, the last two beats are designed by Cno Evil.
The project starts well with the strongest piece and one of the most solid in the emcee's discography, "Slave": on a robust boom bap, seasoned with a good dry, hard and shaky drum and a melodic male soul sample, Buddha Monk delivers with inspiration. In the following minutes there's a decline in the quality of the tape, with slightly weak rhythms, dry drums, simple boom bap and only honest rapping by the performers: Cham brings a bit of ragga with his contribution in "Bad Mad Walking", on a stuttering midtempo drum, unfortunately however there are some annoying whistles in the background.
The author seems to find the right path starting from the fifth choice, where he goes away quite worthy on a simple boom bap with midtempo drums and good horn samples. For the next cut, Buddha Monk places a sample from a Marvin Gaye classic, "Mercy Mercy Me", spoken word intro on this sample, then after a minute and a half comes a raw and gruff boom bap, with a dry rusty drum, and an equally rough delivery by the rapper. He continues to press the accelerator in "Gun Them Down", dropping bars together with Popa Chief of Zu Ninjaz on a simple boom bap. In the following track, Buddha Monk joins Bash and Preacher Man over a decent piano sample and a poor, slow and weak drum.
"How Could U Blame Me" is a solo by Politic supported by a cheap beat, the drum is weak, the sample is poor, the rapping by Politic doesn't work. "Girl Friend" features guest Mr. Tibbs who offers a rnb hook in support of Buddha Monk's rap over a sparse drum. From "All My" a heavy decline returns on the CD, with a whole series of bad choices by Buddha Monk behind the keyboards: not even his rapping is particularly inspired on these cheap and shoddy beats, most of these cuts are buried by a bland execution, bad hooks. In "Sling Them Stones", the boy also seems to try the commercial tune with a cheap beat for the club.
"We On Point" is a posse with Casine Kelly, I-Born, Shake-A-Vel and Buddha Monk himself: the boys don't sound bad here, however, the boom bap beat is too weak and poor. French emcee Soundrome is a guest on "Hip Hop Movement", a club-born track with a mainstream beat and bad samples. Cno Evil produces the last two tracks, the first a solo by Babyface Fensta, rapper of Da Manchuz and affiliate of Brooklyn Zu, in which the boy decently spits a bland and sparse boom bap beat. The second is a dark but again a bit weak boom bap, with a dry and hard drum, honest samples, and some good rapping by Buddha Monk, Babyface Fensta and Dungeon Masta, affiliate of Brooklyn Zu Fam, who make an anthem to their label.
Released by Chambermusik Special Products and Duck-Lo Recordings, this gangsta rap record isn't essential for Killa Beez fans, despite the effort put in by Buddha Monk. After a proper start, with one of the few socio-conscious / political effort in Buddha Monk's discography, the tape has an initial dip in the first tracks but flows quite nicely until the halfway point, when it loses control of the course and for some reason collapses in the quality of production and execution.
Rating: 4/10.
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