Debut album by Capital Tax, an Oakland hip-hop group consisting of Leonard Robertson aka Total Mind Devastator (TMD), Scruff, Al "DJ Cool Al" Hughes and DJ Big MC.
The group is atypical since they sound East Coast, with a boom bap jazzy production entirely made by DJ Smooth G. The group goes beyond the allowed listening, putting on sixteen tasteless songs (four skits) for a total close to the hour, also allowing the (mediocre) final posse with Father Dom of Dangerous Crew, Alafi, JH the Master and Prophecy. The generic lyricism and the type of music chosen don't allow these strangers to stand out in the game.
The rapping offered by these dudes is decent, slow syncopated style typical of the period, smooth, there are some rhythms better than others, some are simplistic and cheap, the drum sometimes pounds sometimes it's slower or tight in the middle of the festive functional hooks and good jazzy samples scattered around: in the end, the album is bad in sales, the singles are bad in sales and the MCA Records (!!!) dumped them, rightly so. It's not a wicked listen, but it's not an essential tape, non-completists can bypass it without remorse.
Rating: 6/10.
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