Collaborative project between Ray West and Kool Keith. Behind the keys, the New York producer is flanked by Phil Moffa and Menocal, while at the mic the Ultramagnetic MC's leader is joined by Cormega, 3rd Eye and Dying Breed.
The album starts with "Don't Let Em Lie", skit on live audience, then essential light jazzy rhythm and reggae, spoken reggae skit delivery. Another skit for the second song, "Tank Top": circular, tight, essential, simple jazzy rhythm, spoken intro by Kool Keith. The third cut is perhaps the first one where you finally feel some rapping. Maybe. "Running the Field" has a spoken intro, tight jazzy rhythm, simple, with female soul sample looped tight in background, first verse reserved to Keith, then Cormega arrives and accelerates immediately by tearing the cut and perhaps taking home the best verse at track 3, an event possible on a disc of Keith, his hook is awful.
The fourth track has a decent jazzy production, too tight, simple, with imperceptible female soul samples and decent delivery of Keith. "You I Want" has an uninspired rhythm of Ray West, if I had only listened this effort I wouldn't recommend listening to this producer, here he puts down simplistic and cheap rhythms, Keith does nothing to rekindle it, weak delivery. Sung chorus. Sung badly. Maybe on purpose. Tribute to [Biggie's] "Playa Hater"? No. He wants to do a modern LL [Cool J] ballad, he can't. It doesn't even get close.
The following tune features a minimal light jazzy beat and a tight, too tight female soulful sample looped in the background; Keith doesn't fully explore the [low...] potential of this Ray West's choice. Sounds bad, bad delivery. Skit on minimal jazzy rhythm with skeletal drum machine, you didn't miss it. The eighth one is as soft as the previous ones, the beat is almost not there, mild jazzy, low effort drum machine, mediocre Keith delivery, soulful sample looped in the background but I can hardly distinguish, quite trivial chorus. Sample "John Shaft", the movie, ook. Tight, slow, simple jazzy production, delivery dully, ballad hook R&B lame, but what the hell? This LP is going much worse than expected, the tracks have been deflected.
Production that remains indelibly jazzy even at song number ten, Keith is doing whatever he wants, it's no longer a tape, it's a kind of joke where everything's allowed and the listener can be safely mocked. That's to be expected of anyone who has made one hundred career albums, amen. I have rarely listened to a more easygoing delivery of this, stuff that whole mumble rap regrets. Thirty seconds better than the last eight tracks, there's silence on light jazzy vibes; then skit.
Skeletal, minimal drum machine, but Keith visibly no longer wants to rapping; he try to raise the tone of the delivery, on this rhythm that returns dark vibes traps, the MC starts to feel comfortable here, maybe he was expecting another nine beats traps, maybe it was better not to make this album, change producer or put on agreement BEFORE going to the studio to record. I don't know, Dyin Breed is better and stronger than Keith did on the whole album and: 1. I absolutely don't know who he is and I have no desire to look for him. 2. It doesn't seem to me to be that he's making crazy «T5DOA» bars or saying incredible things. 3. In any case, he dominates his face on one of Keith albums, which for a novice is not a joke, Keith in his career has also dropped classics, at the beginning.
A skit gives us the last one — alleluiah! — track, it's up to AG to pass the towel and clean up this messy: dark jazzy rhythm, tension vibes, pseudo-criminal, hardcore AG (seriously?) in recent years has provided performances let's say at the level of this of Keith, off, weak/dully, without desire, almost as a rapper-retired-homie-I-don't-want-to-go-back-to-studio-please-noooo, here he comes with energy and flows rather worthily on this rhythm, or at least, better than usual, Keith I don't understand what he's doing, but it's surely not doing it as I expect it: that's, if the rhythm was fast or very fast, I could easily understand also a spoken and slow delivery like this, but here the rhythm is slow, almost like a ballad, a delivery at the same speed is meh.
Jazzy rhythms of Ray West, cool delivery of Keith, I honestly expected another album. Released by Red Apples 45, distributed by Fat Beats, this is bad, to want to be generous.
Rating: 4.5/10.
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