Killah Priest — The Offering

Killah Priest's sixth solo studio album, after a long four-year hiatus, returns to release solo material. During this time he has collaborated on the albums of his groups The Four Horsemen, Maccabeez, Sunz of Man and Black Market Militia, he has re-established his ties with Wu-Tang, re-collaborating with the boys of the supergroup and participating in numerous albums.

The production of his new album sees the production team Godz Wrath Productions at the forefront. Sam Sneed, artist famous for the hit "You Better Recognize" (1994), comes behind the keyboards on the last track. 4th Disciple, the main person responsible for the spectacular music of "Heavy Mental" is credited only once, while the rest of the beats are created by unknown beatmakers such as Arythmetic, Kount Fif, Subliminal, Shakim Allah, DJ Sane 720, Chuckie Madness, Ben Grumm and DJ Huggy. The guests include Nas, Hell Razah, Immortal Technique and 4 HRSMN, who take part in the album together with Bloodsport, Zariya and Stori James.

To open his album, on the second track, Killah Priest has a sample directly from the Maestro Ennio Morricone. Arythmetic pulls out "Per un pugno di dollari, No. 2" from the soundtrack of the first chapter of Sergio Leone's Dollar Trilogy (1964) for the atmosphere of "Salvation". The rest of the rhythm is quite poor, weak drum, sickly, that beats listlessly midtempo, Killah Priest doesn't fail however and kills the beat, appropriately with the cult movie from which it takes inspiration. Kount Fif can claim to have set the beat for a historic Killah Priest & Nas collaboration: over a sparse and cluttered production, the Wu-Tang Clan’s closest affiliate delivers bars alongside an inspired Escobar, in a track where the latter drops a socio-political verse, closing his stanza with a tribute to Priest’s favorite themes and performing the lyrics with a spectacularly rapid flow. Masada returns to drop two more verses in what is a career highlight.

The Brooklyn emcee later compares himself to the greatest of all time, considering himself at that level in the album’s fourth choice, “How Many?”. Chuckie Madness samples “Love Theme from Rome & Juliet”, a cover of Nino Rota homonymous song for the soundtrack of Zeffirelli’s 1968 film, in order to create the beat for the title track. The rhythm of "Uprising" designed by Shakim Allah is well made: raw bass line, dirty strings, dusty, rotten, muddy, midtempo drum machine, beautiful soul sample from The Originals' "My World Is Empty Without You", cover song by the Supremes. "The PJ's" sees the author unloading bars together with his son Zariya aka Z Man aka Young Priest.

Listening back to the album I find another musical gem in "Happy" and among the credits the name is the same as before, Shakim Allah, maybe not a coincidence at this point, two excellent productions out of two: great bass, poor drum midtempo, guitar riff in the background, relaxed soul sample from "Inside My Love" by Minnie Riperton. In both songs Killah Priest is in form, signing some of his strongest pieces. DJ Huggy digs into Electric Light Orchestra's "Ticket to the Moon" to ground the rhythm of "Essential": Masada is at home here, perfectly at ease on these types of beats, and drops bars with some of his smoothest flows, printing a classic.

Sam Sneed also delivers an absurd gem for the final track, "Til Thee Angels Come For Us". Modern boom bap, sparkling synth keyboard, raw bass vibrating in the background, midtempo bare drum, pleasant hi-hat, beautiful bright and dark piano, one of the best rhythms of the year. Smoothness, velvety, fluid, clean delivery by Killah Priest on the introductory verse. Simple hook, with that "oh, my, my, my". Classic, right? Yes. But from where? I couldn't figure it out. I searched on "genius" and couldn't find it. Before I went crazy, I searched on "genius" again: at result number 74 (no joke) appears an iconic track by Ghostface Killah, "The Sun", intended for his third album "Bulletproof Wallets", then discarded for sample problems and inserted in a compilation a few years later.

That part I'm looking for comes from one of the guests of that joint, Slick Rick, who quotes himself from one of his historic tracks from 1988, "Hey Young World". Priest pays homage to Slick Rick here. Second stanza of the author who remains focused and authoritative, before leaving room for some well-placed bars by the former member of Sunz of Man 7th Ambassador. Hook, so the track remains marked by the group (despite both guests are credited as Blackmarket bka Black Market Militia, despite Ambassador isn't part of that crew) with the appearance of another pillar of the historic affiliates of the Wu-Tang Clan, Hell Razah, who delivers with a loose rapping, Priest closes the album with the last bars, before venturing into a long outro with distorted voice.

I had no desire to go and make yet another track by track, but the quality of this project is so high that it's impressive. The author sticks to what are now his typical religious, violent — his own moniker is an example — and abstract themes, combining references to historical and political leaders, hints of war, frayed spiritual insertions, socio-conscious, ghetto life, personal themes and a bit of bravado. The sum of all these elements constitutes tracks that sound complex and impenetrable from a lyrical point of view, on a sparse but effective production throughout the album.

Some critics and fans find the set here amateurish, bland and difficult, I personally think that the guys have managed to carve out tight, dark, rough musical carpets and generally solid boom bap rhythms that try to get closer to the musical paintings offered by 4th Disciple (here present behind the keyboards in a posse with Canibus, Kurupt and Ras Kass) in Priest's debut almost ten years earlier, with a vibrant bass, dirty and dry drums, delicious strings, brilliant pianos and melodic samples.

Released by Good Hands Records and Nu Kemit Entertainment, distributed by Traffic, mixed mainly in the studio of the Italian musician Fabrizio Sotti, the CD is launched by the single with Nas "Gun 4 Gun" that is released a month before the release. At the release, is ignored by specialized critics and appreciated by fans, who consider it to be almost at the same heights with his debut album "Heavy Mental" (1998) and ultimately a great album. 8.5/10.