In 2010, West Coast underground rappers Pro the Leader and Chester "MC Dopestyle" Smith release a collaborative album under the duo name Prostyle. Half of the album was produced by Prime Music, with the rest of the set featuring beats from Life Rexall, PNS, Shaggy Manatee, Gneticz, Gifted Glitch, Dig Dug, and X-P. The album is heavy on guest contributions. The Holocaust aka Warcloud of Black Knights is the main guest on the album. He's joined by Cappadonna of Wu-Tang Clan, Killah Priest of Sunz of Man, Timbo King of Royal Fam, M-Eighty of Almighty, Opio of Souls of Mischief, Fes Taylor of The Housegang, Phil Anastasia, Atlantis Scrolls, Nova-Kane, Mic Moses, Zion I, Weapon X of Mysterious, C-Rayz Walz, and Casual.
The album opens excellently with "Triple Threat". Boom bap, midtempo dirty dusty drum, phat bass, vocal sample, Prime Music's beat composition is perfect. Pro the Leader delivers in a regular, colloquial way, flowing nicely on the beat, even the totally simplistic hook works on this graceful soundscape. MC Dopestyle enters with a raw, rough, carefree style and creates a curious musical contrast with the lightness of the beat. The third verse is reserved for Casual who lets loose on the beat, providing the guys with a pretty strong and solid introductory cut to launch their first collaborative album.
"Vultures" is the first posse of the album and begins to present rather heavy names: inside, in addition to the two main emcees, also the friend Nova-Kane, C-Rayz Walz, who recently took part in the Wu Almighty project, The Holocaust aka Warcloud, with whom Pro the Leader shares part of his discography and Killah Priest. The production is solid, Middle Eastern vibes, vocal sample, dry midtempo drum, raw bass. Ideal musical carpet for the first emcee, the leader of Sunz of Man Killah Priest, who cloaks the rhythm with his regular and calm delivery. Dopestyle continues with an irregular, smudged, stuttering, graceless style. The rhythm breathes for a few moments before welcoming the next rapper, Pro the Leader, who spits bars with a colloquial rapping. C-Rayz Walz continues this cypher with a good style, the beat breathes again, then Nova-Kane assaults the track with a fast and energetic flow, the posse is closed after five minutes by the leader of West Coast Killa Beez Warcloud who enters without permission and gives a knife to the joint without caring too much about the beat, with which he would normally be at ease.
Pro expects this record to be a classic, if that's the premise the tape is on the right way, even if it's hard to keep this quality for an hour. Mic Moses supports the two rappers on a solid production by Prime Music for "Rap Assassins": boom bap, poor drum, shiny horns, raw bass, scratches on the hook, the boys drop bars for three minutes. Warcloud returns alongside Timbo King of Royal Fam to support the duo Prostyle on a tight production, boom bap with robust bass, poor dry drum, vibrant piano keys. The fifth choice is made together with Nova-Kane on the mic, while Prime Music provides another beats of quality: deep bass, poor drum, high-pitched trumpet in loop, pressing and prominent piano keys, good rap by the performers. M-Eighty is the third member of Almighty to participate in the project in the first six tracks and he's not the last: solid boom bap, sweet strings that give freshness to the beat after the drum arrives in a dry midtempo way to spray acidity and dirt, phat vibrant bass, effective rapping of the performers.
The sound of vinyl surrounds a loop of sad and melancholic piano keys as the foundation for the soundscape of "Despair", where Prostyle is joined by Killah Priest, who has in Almighty one of the many groups he has been part of: the emcee closest affiliate of the Wu-Tang Clan enters with elegance and delivers lucid, clean, flowing, dope on a production close to him. Crisp bass on "Rippin", dry hard drum uptempo, effective synths, tight rap by Pro the Leader, vocal sample breathing for the hook. Mic Moses is again a guest of the duo, he thanks by providing some of his best flows, paving the way for the other guest, Phil Anastasia, who delivers hardcore. Dopestyle opens the next cut on a solid production by Prime Music, phat bass, haunting and hypnotizing piano loop, sparse drum with syncopated Christmas bells, simple hook by Pro the Leader, his smooth, velvety delivery, good piece that also coincides with the first one without guests since the beginning of the record, half an hour ago.
Prime Music provides one of its best musical carpets in "Hit Em Where It Counts": shiny strings, dirty sparse drum uptempo, cold bass, hardcore delivery by Pro the Leader, simple chorus, this is the second tune without guests on the record and a rare solo by the rapper. The following is a remix of an American Poets 2099 track. Boom bap, solid bass, heavy dry drum midtempo, gorgeous strings, keyboards, steady delivery by Pro the Leader, then Cappadonna goes hardcore and smashes the beat with his raw, rough, shouted, crazy style to deliver the hook. This cut puts the Wu-Tang Clan on the album and also another Almighty representative. His contributions are followed by those of Inspectah Deck affiliate Fes Taylor of The Housegang and Nova-Kane.
"Money Off Rap" features the first slightly subdued production on the record, it also coincides with the first of the second part of the record that is not produced by Prime Music: the beat is made by Life Rexall, poor drum midtempo, raw bass, keyboards, raw synths, slightly stuttering musical support for Prostyle and Casual. "Waste No Time" boasts a sleek piano provided by beatmaker PNS, silky bass, sparse drum with urgent hi-hats, haunting samples: the boys deliver quickly on this musical carpet, the duo is joined by Atlantis Scrolls here. A disturbing, almost terrifying female vocal loop greets the listener in "Back Wit a Vengeance", where Dopestyle is joined on the mic by Zion I on a production conceived by Shaggy Manatee: rusty guitar riff, sparse midtempo dusty drum, deep bass in the background, solid rhythm. This is one of the few tracks that doesn't see the presence of Pro the Leader.
Gneticz produces the following joint, where Pro the Leader returns to spit bars alongside his historic collaborator Warcloud aka The Holocaust, former member of Black Knights. Boom bap, heavy dry drum, bongos, sound of shelled swords of Wu-Tang memory in loop, haunting piano, quick raw delivery by Warcloud after the contribution of The Professional, busy on the hook, then this last one also drops his verse. Warcloud stays on the mic for the next cut, "Classic Monsters", delivering his own erratic style over a bouncy production by Gifted Glitch: boom bap, sparse dirty dusty uptempo drums, rough bass, guitar riffs. The Prostyle duo rounds out the piece, speeding up their performances at the rhythm's behest.
Dopestyle eats up Shaggy Manatee's exquisite beat on "Put It Down": boom bap, dusty poor uptempo drums, sharp bass, samples that seem to come straight from Memphis, slick keys, sick piano, awesome eerie rhythm. Quick delivery by Pro the Leader, who tries to tear the beat. Opio of Souls of Mischief on the third verse with a fast, lethal, dope rapping style. Dig Dug's production on "Blak Orpheus" is funky, this boom bap also seems to come from Memphis: minimal poor uptempo drums, dizzying bass, haunting samples, totally eerie and scary soundscape to support Dopestyle's rapping, who gives one of his best performances here, in a solo where he seems to be able to go on forever in these three minutes.
"Sharp Splinters" boasts a stunning production by X-P: boom bap, dusty midtempo drum beats, dirty trembling strings, deep bass, the perfect musical backdrop for Warcloud's delivery, which he raps in a ragged and rough way. Pro the Leader drops bars in the wake of his contribution, continuing with a regular and clean style. The third verse is performed by the leader of the British group Mysterious Weapon X. We are therefore faced with a collab between American Poets 2099 and the affiliated group Mysterious. The posse, the last of the album, is closed by the rapping ragged and stuttering of Dopestyle. The new 2024 edition features the bonus track "Why" where Pro the Leader trades bars together with Atlantis Scrolls on a lively and fresh production.
The CD is released in 2010 by Pro's Laboratory Records and Know The Names Music Group. In 2024 Black Stone of Mecca raises it as part of a trilogy and adds a bonus track. LD on mixing and Deeskee on mastering do a wonderful job to bring freshness to the sound of this CD. The production is among the best of the season in hip-hop, in particular Prime Music does everything right. Pro the Leader and Dopestyle show their talent in these almost seventy minutes, joining other talented guys linked to Wu-Tang and in particular the supergroup Almighty, who a few years earlier released their debut album, as well as Opio and Casual. Recommended purchase for Wu-stans.
Rating: 7.3/10.
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