Fourth studio album by Killah Priest. Jahson of Mood produces half the album, the rest of the beats are made by Anton Kallisto, Godie, Mr. Khaliyl, G 13, Prose Ipso, Steely & Clevie, Sticky Dan and UC, the latter taking care of most of the mixing. The guests are Savoy, Solstice and Elephant Man. The title derives from the fact that the author was born in August.
The album starts off well with "Black August (Daylight)": unknown producer Anton Kallisto takes a sample of "The Making of You" by Gladys Knight and creates a solid sonic carpet for Killah Priest's delivery, creating one of the best songs on the album, where the author is clearly inspired. Solid bass, sparse midtempo drum that does its job autonomously, melodic and harmonious rhythm, fantastic, Killah Priest delivers with a great smoothness and energetic flow, excellent piece. With the arrival of "Excalibur" the samples practically end, here's one of Eddie Kendricks from "Just Memories", but beatmaker Godie fails to transform his beat into something that stands out from the rest of the record.
The third choice has a rhythm just too bad to be true, the piano isn't bad, but the drums are poor and there are cheap, loud and annoying sounds in the background, for no real reason, Priest can't lift this stuff above mediocrity, choosing a relaxed delivery style that leaves plenty of room for rhythm. Mr. Khaliyl gets the beat wrong for "Do the Damn Thing", which seems to be seeking mainstream approval, it's one of the worst beats made on a Priest album so far. "Time" gets back on track by giving the rapper better musical support to showcase his storytelling skills with a crime story. The emcee remains in criminal territory for the next segment as well, when he engages in a robbery on a Jahson beat.
He moves towards the socio-conscious in "Come with Me", over an average beat from Jahson. Curiously, Priest already put a track with the identical title on the previous album, in a feat with George Clinton: in any case this track is totally different. Anton Kallisto returns behind the keyboards and turns out to be the best producer of the album as well as the best to happen in Killah Priest's catalog after the release of "Heavy Mental": the producer makes a phenomenal beat for "Breathe", effective bassline, dry, hard, heavy, midtempo drums, dusty and dirty strings, harmonious soul choir in the background, sample from The Delfonics' "Walk Right Up to the Sun", lethal hardcore rapping from Killah Priest destroying the cut. This is the best song on the album ahead of the other production created by Kallisto, and it's the last song to have a good sample.
The ninth choice comes on the heels of the excellent previous track and retains some of that quality, thanks to a good rhythm created by Prose Ipso and careful rapping by Priest, who then loses his hand a bit with "Déjà Vu": his narrative skills remain unchanged, however, the Brooklyn emcee is unassisted behind the keyboards, because somehow Jahson still messes up the rhythm and comes out with a disappointing beat that doesn't reward one of Masada's most inspired lyrics. SoulStice (also sometimes credited as Solstice) guests on "Goodbye" and is the first guest rapper since the beginning of the record, arriving almost forty minutes in. Savoy guests on "Robbery" but sings the hook. On a Jahson production which, like the previous ones, isn't telling me anything, the boys place a fairly cold and generic tune that only tries to shake when Solstice refers to the brutal murder of Amadou Diallo, which occurred a few years earlier.
Jahson remains behind the keyboards to work on "Black August (Dark)", signing the best production of him, while Priest provides lyrics with biblical and religious references. The album would be finished, but there are also a couple of remixes: the first features Elephant Man as a guest on the "Robbery" remix and it's not a good song. The second is one of Killah Priest's worst tracks ever over shoddy production by UC, in which the rapper, I don't know, is probably also aiming at the female audience, I have no idea why this six-minute-plus trashy sex track exists and somehow ended up on this record.
Killah Priest exhibits a calm and relaxed style, reciting texts that revolve around themes already present in his catalog such as religion, biblical references, spirituality, street narratives, crime and violence, on a production that comes and goes but mostly isn't as good as it should be, made by amateur guys that the rapper met in California. The author offers different styles and situations in this album, providing what he claims are autobiographical overtones in an effort to "take hip-hop back to its roots" and "keep it real", more or less on the same wavelength as fellow Sunz of Man member Hell Razah.
After the release of "Priesthood" (2001), Killah Priest leaves his label Proverbs Music which he had founded together with Louis Lombard aka Luminati and comes to an agreement with Recon Records and Artemis Records (the latter label has published some albums by Kurupt, who is part of the Four Horsemen together with Priest) and gets distribution from Koch Records. There are different versions of this album with different tracklists, on streaming sites you can also find albums such as "Summer Pain" and "Breathe" which have a different cover and a different tracklist, but feature the same fourteen tracks as "Black August".
Killah Priest still stuck at the crossroads between spirituality, philosophy, biblical and religious references and thug rap, he builds an album just as irregular and grumpy as the previous one, with more or less the same strengths and weaknesses. Not recommended, 6/10.
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