More than twenty years after his death, the writer Milton William "Bill" Cooper, native of Long Beach, California, and who lived most of his life in Arizona, retains an impregnable hard core of hip-hop fans, and more, which cemented and grew firmly rooted around its only published manifesto, informally known as "The Book". His conspiracy theories are interesting however wild and far-fetched they may be or seem, and when you have a writer's block, an Illuminati verse could always serve: in 1995, Prodigy is the first to mention the historic secret society in a hip-hop song, the remix of "I Shot Ya" by LL Cool J, and he does so after reading Cooper's book several times.
That document paves the way for generations of hip-hop artists to investigate the content generated by Cooper. In the early 2000s, Walter Reed suggests to Andrew Kissle change his moniker from Booth to William Cooper, in homage to the writer. Soon after, they both joined an underground hip-hop group along with Hell Razah, Timbo King and Tragedy Khadafi, formed Black Market Militia and released an LP that didn't get much success. In 2009, William Cooper made his solo debut with his own album, whose title is homonymous to the Cooper's book written, so if you look for this artist and this album you find the book and not the disk: eighteen tracks produced by a bunch of strangers besides him (two beats credited as Booth) and Bronze Nazareth (one) and guests such as Blue Rapsberry, Killah Priest & Hell Razah of Sunz of Man, 9th Prince of Killarmy, Stoneface of Royal Fam, Nature of The Firm, Majesty, Ill Bill, Kool G Rap and Blood Sport.
The introductory beat is excellent, produced by Booth aka William Cooper himself, the rapper delivers the first lead bars for the album. "In America" is another of the strongest moments in the career of the emerging emcee native of Bloomfield, New Jersey, not far from Newark: Cooper delivers next to the columns of the Sunz of Man Killah Priest and Hell Razah, with which he was part of Black Market Militia, whose name is recycled for this release, which was probably originally intended to be released a short distance from the group's album. From the third track onwards the disc settles on a good trip, thanks to a thought-out boom bap production and of a solid rapping and interpreted with a calm style, even if Cooper may not be one of the most valid performers you have ever heard.
Some of the highlights coincide with the presence of a guest ("Bring It Black", "Still Shining", "J.W. Booth", "Cocaine Israelites", "American Gangsters") and with the creation of an above-average beat ("Feel Afraid"; props to J. Rusch). The album is not an essential record for Wu-Tang fans and is still good enough to be released by the lesser-known member of Black Market Militia. 7/10.
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