Taiyamo Denku — RadiOctave

Album by Jason "Taiyamo Denku" Miller, rapper from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Production is by Simon "D-Cypha" Stoker. The disc contains 80 minutes of music divided into 19 long tracks, excluding the intro and an interlude, no song falls below three and a half minutes, which is challenging for a 2015 album by an unknown artist on the underground hip-hop circuit. But behind the scenes, the album has its reasons, because the guests represent some of the most important realities of the New York scene of the nineties, it's a tribute to the nineties.

In fact, it represents groups such as the Juice Crew (Kool G Rap, present twice, and Craig G), Def Squad (Keith Murray), Flipmode Squad (Lord Have Mercy and Rah Digga), Mobb Deep (affiliate Big Noyd), Artifacts (Tame One), Leaders of the New School (Dinco D), Wu-Tang Killa Beez with Wisemen (Bronze Nazareth), The Four Horsemen (Ras Kass) & Theodore Unit (Solomon Childs), Army of the Pharaohs (Block McCloud) and Heltah Skeltah (Sean Price), as well as Chino XL, Gavlyn, Perseph One, Markita, Napoleon da Legend, Kain Slim, Ruste Juxx, Son Em All, War Beyah, J.B.Ill, RichardGriecoSuave, Empne, Urban Legend, The Genius (not GZA), Whitney Peyton, Cella Dwellas, Edo.G, XL, Dro Pesci, Shabaam Sahdeeq, Reks, Serum and Maximus da Mantis.

The album disappoints, often due to the quality of the production, which doesn't reward the few efforts of the performers. Nobody is really inspired in this project. G Rap comes twice in these eighty minutes, and sounds better on "Wanna Be's" than on "Stone Cold", over a more haunted production than usual. DCypha's beats sound best when the guy sticks to the typical boom bap rhythm with jazzy elements and dark loops, when he instead varies on more eccentric and experimental productions, confused and unmanageable beats come out. A few tracks ("Levitate," "Munsters," "When Ya Real," and "Wanna Be's") emerge on a long, ultimately non-essential record in the 2015 hip-hop scene. 5/10.