Debut album for Eric Kaiser, a rapper from Houston who under the name of K-Rino has participated in dozens of hip-hop groups, doing a lot for the South Park Coalition of which he's founder and leader.
The album is entirely written and produced by K-Rino, as guests are called South Park Coalition affiliates: B.C. Chill, Dope E, Ganksta NIP, K.O., DBX, Greek, Murder One, Point Blank, and The Beholder. In this debut, the Houston MC presents himself as a skilled storyteller, more talented than most of the hip-hop performers of the period: he produces lyrics structured on socio-conscious and political themes, with hardcore and thug traits, delivering bars with a flowing and energetic, slow and syncopated style.
From a lyrical point of view, there's little to complain about (being a record of over an hour, it's reasonable to expect some slips: "Cartoon Orgie" is not out of place), while from the point of view of production, the rhythms don't hold up the rapper's lyrical effort and turn out, on the whole, an unfortunate choice that complicates the listening. K-Rino himself takes care of the production almost entirely, creating a simplistic soundscape: boom bap beats, easy funky samples, lean slow drums.
A sometimes-annoying minimal sound layer emerges, the boy doesn't seem to have a good ear for rhythms: unfortunately, in 1993, the production on the circuit is excellent, which is why this record remains behind in the choices of aesthetes. When his fluid rapping meets a beat that appears reasoned, he gets solid-great cuts. Notable "War in South Park" posse with seven rappers including Ganksta NIP and Point Blank, celebrating South Park and the SPC crew.
Produced by the local label Electric City Records, the album isn't a commercial success and reaches 66 minutes of listening, divided into 17 tracks with a couple of skits, no song goes under three minutes and this makes it a not very easy listening, combined with a difficult production: the fact that this may be the best music panorama on a K-Rino record, discourages me personally from listening to the remaining forty records realized by him. It's a shame because, lyrically, he could be one of the finest.
Highlights: "Step Into the Mind", "Tied In", "Creator of Life", "Stories From the Black Book", "Ultimate Flow".
Rating: 7/10.
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