Eighth solo studio album by Brooklyn rapper Killah Priest. No guests. Production is handled entirely by DJ Woool, as was the case with the previously released five months earlier album "The Exorcist".
The album opens with a solid track, the production is beautiful. Raw bass line, heavy dirty drum, lively hi-hats, medieval gothic sounds, vibrant church piano, dark smoothness flowing effortless delivery by Killah Priest that cloaks the track in a dark veil. "Sword Clan" boasts a brilliant beat, dirty drum, shaking keys, muddy horns and strings, slick rapping by Priest. The third choice continues an impressive momentum for this album, DJ Woool is doing nothing wrong behind the keys, not even if he wanted to: electric guitar licks, vibrant bass, heavy drum, raw boom bap, effortless delivery by Killah Priest, functional hook.
"7 Crowns of God" is another classic, this album is bananas: producer's sci-fi beat in its simplicity, dusty downtempo drum, cheap and overabundant synthesizer that invades the musical carpet, soft bass line, it almost sounds like a dance track, lazy elementary hook, the author drops bars with an enviable ease of execution, quiet, calm, traveling on the current of the beat, on his laps with sunglasses casually dropped on and a cold beer in his hand that touches the water on a lifebelt, phenomenal. This choice is the album single. "Drama" also boasts a fantastic soundscape, gorgeous: dark raw bass line, sparse dusty midtempo drum, dark guitar riff, gothic rhythm, thick delivery of Priest that eats the cut.
The production quality starts to drop for some reason on "Trapped": DJ Woool doesn't mess anything up, the musical carpet should sound just as good as the previous ones, but for some reason it doesn't. I can't explain. The bass is raw as always, there are good dirty violins, a haunting sample, a slapping drum, Priest in form spitting slowly, it's all right but sounds less good than the previous tunes. The next choice brings back quality behind the keys: there's a cheap and annoying loop that works for some reason, heavy, hard, midtempo drum, rough bass, Priest delivers with his usual calm here. Track number eight boasts a dry midtempo drum, nice looped samples to support Killah Priest.
"Rise" is still a quality production and I struggle to understand how it is possible: the rapper speeds up his execution a little, boom bap rhythm, solid bass line, dry dusty downtempo drum, almost random synths, the music should be noisy in its economy, but it works somehow. Choice number ten is "How Much". The soundscape is medieval, like a Transylvanian movie, boom bap, dry, hard, dusty, dirty drum, rough bass line, plucked guitar, velvet delivery by Priest, functional hook. An interlude takes the listener to the second part of the tape. "Murdah Murdah at Dawn" is the next track. A production that desperately wants to be epic, sick strings, a solid bass line, dirty, dusty, dry drum, hard slick delivery by Priest that kills the cut, placing a tribute to 2Pac for the hook ("If I Die 2Nite", 1995).
"Let Us Pray" is the first production from the beginning of the album that I find truly unsuccessful: the drum hits too hard and without any real sense, the samples play under the drum this time and so does Priest's voice, which comes out with too much effort compared to before, this is because the beat is uptempo and the boy can't follow it, struggling to keep up with it the whole time. Luckily, it's one of the shortest cuts on the album. "Diagnose" is still a solid production: dry dusty midtempo drums, precise, solid rough bass, haunting, pleasant samples, sparkling keyboard, effortless smooth delivery by Priest, in these moments you can really notice how the boy doesn't know how to make hooks, but if you're looking for hooks here maybe you've got the wrong artist, without maybe.
"What U Want" features a downtempo low-pitched drum beat that doesn't give any concessions, a phat roaring bass line that is resounding, loud samples, cymbals that make a mess, a rowdy electric guitar riff, an ascending rhythm, Killah Priest with more energy than usual, disjointed, irregular, velvety, hardcore, dope cut. "Color of Murder Two (Old Castle Hop)" has a gothic, dark, medieval beat, dirty strings, shoddy downtempo drum, raw bass, a sick and proud organ in the background that never leaves the tune, it's perennial, rusty keyboards, dusty medieval loops, Priest's slow irregular delivery that destroys the piece.
"Jacob Never Died" is made by sampling a classic, "Old and Wise" by The Alan Parsons Project. DJ Woool gives us a bare, uptempo, loud, messy, rowdy drum machine, that has nothing to do with Parsons' melody and ruins the mood of the track. Without this crappy drum it would have been yet another Priest classic and it is not, despite the rapper's efforts here, commendable. "Confession Booth" boasts a soft bass line, poor midtempo drum, shoddy hi-hats, sickly cheap synths, somehow Priest makes the music work with a loose rapping and an autobiographical lyricism that retraces his musical career from the beginning through the experience with Wu-Tang, the adventure with Sunz of Man and he reveals the group's stalemate. The next choice features a dirty rhythm, rough bass line robust in the background, dusty drum midtempo tired, electric guitar licks, synthesized keyboards, slow effortless rapping of a dominant priest in this long LP.
"Truth Turn Off the Radio" welcomes the author with a dry dry hard midtempo drum, vibrant synths, robust bass, electric guitar licks, regular rapping by Priest. "Street Matrix" transports the listener to the last tracks: heavy dry drum, sick synths in loop, rough bass, relentless rap by the New York emcee. "Real Rap Shit" brings the album back to high levels in terms of production: the quality is always low as usual, but here DJ Woool accidentally finds one of his best works. There's a dissonant and disturbing loop, scary, poor and skeletal downtempo drum, dark piano, random synth lines, strong delivery by Priest. "Assignment" plays on the same ground as the other tracks. Dry hard midtempo drum, haunting loop, minimal bass that stays behind in the background, slow hardcore delivery by Priest that massacres the rhythm. This fantastic album is appropriately closed by "The God Within": soft bassline, sparse and minimal downtempo drums, phantasmagorical vocal sample, bells, calm piano in the background, dirty and sad violin loops, sweet and beautiful soundscape, hardcore delivery by Killah Priest.
Final Thoughts
The emcee's voice changes on this record, it gets heavier, slower, calmer, with a heavier and stronger step, more raw, always excellent. The production is cheap and fantastic, although for many fans and critics the low budget used makes the whole set bad, lazy and poor: I'm not saying they're wrong, but for me it sounds wonderful. It's one of the rare productions made by DJ Woool that I appreciate, after having detested him in Killah Priest's previous efforts. Another choice that sounds surprisingly good is not to go to make too much effort in the mix, in this way the whole record sounds raw and cheap, which marries perfectly with the rusty tracks built by the rapper.
Lyrically, Reed maintains the medieval themes of the previous records, modernizing them, we could say almost to the Renaissance, let's say 1400-1600. The album title refers to Elizabeth I, daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, Queen of England at the end of the 16th century. At least these are the intentions in the introductory tracks, because in the end the album has no concept or a coherent theme and goes a bit where it wants, tackling lyrics with topics increasingly close to horrorcore, including murders, monsters, violence and ghosts, always keeping contexts dear to Killah Priest's historical discography, namely spirituality, mysticism, metaphysics, philosophy, scattered historical and religious references, mythology of minor sects and healthy gangsterisms. Random cryptic battles come out for 24 tracks and almost 80 minutes of material offered, with a series of cuts that always resemble the stream of consciousness extracted from Ghostface in "Supreme Clientele", which however is precisely Priest himself who invented together with Sunz years before the release of that album.
Independently released on his own Proverbs Records, this CD sounds just like a mixtape, but that can also be said of the Sunz boy's last two records. Overall, it's a pure quality album, with intricate lyricism and a budget production of rare and raw beauty in its incredible simplicity, which gives the whole project good replay value. The fact that it's without guests is absurd, this is Killah Priest's second best album so far, behind only his iconic debut.
Rating: 8.5/10.
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