reviewsuvw
Hip-Hop Reviews - U, V, W
Please note that the reviews are ordered by Artist first name..
All reviews are opinion, a guide only. Some are short and to the point, others go into more depth. No real reason why other than when the reviews were written! For other fantastic reviews, check out trailblazinministries.com, sphereofhiphop.com, gospelflava.com, hiphopforthesoul.com and jydist.com. Cross Rhythms has some good reviews too, although limited in content.
Please note if you see any of these reviews elsewhere, it is because I have done the reviews for others. These reviews are mostly for Cross Rhythms, although they edit the reviews. The reviews on these pages are my full reviews.
Uprok Records - Mixtape Vol 1 (mixed by DJ Allstar) | TOP
Featuring Playdough, Raphi, KJ-52, New Breed, Freddie Bruno, Ill Harmonics, Tunnel Rats, Sev Statik, Deepspace 5, BK, LPG, Peace 586. Worth every penny. Retails for no more than £5.00 if you can find it. Run Time - 71.64.
Uprok Records - Mixtape Vol 2 (mixed by DJ Allstar) | TOP
Featuring Mars Ill, Jurny Big, Playdough, Playdough, Illtripp, Underground Rise, KJ-52, Tunnel Rats, Raphi, Listener, Sintax the Terrific, Freddie Bruno, LPG, Deepspace 5, Propaganda, New Breed and Peace 586. Again, worth every penny. Should retail for no more than £5.00. Run Time - 73.03.
Urban D - The Immigrant (Album) | TOP
Urban D, Pastor at Crossover Community Church, Tampa, FL and hip hop minister of the gospel, takes us on a journey with him, contrasting immigrants to the US and Christians - both being 'aliens'. Hebrews 11.13 and 1 Peter 2.11 tell us that as Christians we are aliens to this world, our real home being heaven. Interesting production on 'The Immigrant' - giving a unique stereo sound. Great Spanish sounding track with a video available from www.flavoralliance.com. Some spiritually deep and real insightful tracks blend with lots of Greek sounding fills too. 'The American Dream' with the amazing Corey Red & Precise and 'Our Culture' are real gems of spiritual wisdom from Urban D, dissecting US culture. 'Passport' with Pettidee looks at John 14.6 with Christ being our 'passport' to heaven. The first week US sales were apparently exactly that of Urban D's zip code - 813! I've heard about, had contact with and seen Urban D perform in London - so buy this album, just to support the Godly, integrity-filled hip hop ministry God's developing at Crossover. Run Time - 68.05.
Urban D - The Immigrant (Maxi Single) | TOP
With the main featured tracks off the album. You get 20 tracks on one maxi single, for around £6.80. This includes 'The Immigrant' - 'The American Dream' - 'Passport' - 'The Value' - the DJ Lopez remix of 'The Immigrant' - 'Eternally Alive' - plus instrumental and accapella versions of many of the tracks, and some radio intros. Great value to test the Urban D rap waters. Run Time - ?
Various – The Fallen Soldier Compilation. A Tribute to D-Boy | TOP
Danny Rodriguez, or D-Boy, was a gifted Christian rapper ministering to gangs in Dallas, Texas. In 1990 he was shot dead in a drive-by aged 23. I’d heard of D-Boy from the Corey Red, Precise album where “A Martyr’s Anthem” is dedicated to him. But here is an album dedicated to D-Boy’s memory. This album has a gritty, street feel to it with laid back, rolling dirty south style delivery. We start up flicking through some of D-Boy’s tracks, before moving into the album proper. 2 tracks of bouncy dirty south encouraging us that seeds planted will grow – and ‘church hopping’. There’s more of a rap feel with Nate G. TekSon brings a great old skool beated and styled track with “GODS Posse In Effect.” In “That UB Urself” brings an interesting beat with some interesting syncopated timing. The album isn’t afraid to confront social issues, as in “Cease For Peace”, a look at gangs being the only family kids know, the trap of the ghetto, violence and guns. “Shout” samples The Isley Brothers, ‘shout, throw my hands up..’ Nate G calls out hip-hop in ‘Hip-Hopracy’. We end up with a track dedicated to D-Boy, “Fallen Soldier” – a true pioneer and ‘the first big rapper to lose his life on the streets..’ We even have the great Fred Lynch (a HHH pioneer no less and author of 'Get The Word') dropping a track. As Corey Red says, ‘yo D-Boy, see you at the resurrection.’ Amen. Meanwhile, let’s continue to rep Christ through hip-hop. Just like this album does.
Various - Hip Hope Hits 2005 | TOP
The CD kicks off with ‘Hittin Curves’, the lead single off the ‘Dichotomy A’ album from Grits, the Christian crew rightly enjoying critical acclaim. Next up are Philly’s super crew, Cross Movement with ‘When I Flow’ from the Holy Culture album. As ever from CM we have an in yer face gospel message. John Reuben brings his fun and commercial vibe in ‘Life Is Short’. TobyMac continues to show his flexibility in ‘Extreme Days’. LA Symphony drop their underground flow to their synthesized funk sound in ‘Here To Party’. Next up KJ52 brings the tuneful and well delivered ‘Dear Slim Part 2’, the second part in his message to Eminem from his ‘It’s Pronounced Five Two’ album. In ‘Take Me Away’ the 4th Avenue Jones band demonstrate their awesome hip rock soul sound. Pigeon John speaks encouragement to keep going in ‘Life Goes On’ – featuring scratched sampled from Nas, ‘I Can’ among others. We also catch a preview track from the very ill Mars Ill crew called ‘All Out’ – from their delayed ‘Pro Pain’ album - bringing underground hip hop to new levels. T-Bone brings his usual West Coast sound in ‘ Blazin Mics’. Ill Harmonics bring their distinct vibe on ‘Monkey Business’, an acoustic & catchy look at the music game. Paul Wright with Lightheaded bring their jazzy and head-nodding sound in the awesome ‘Rock The Show’. A move in the rapcore direction comes with Hero and ‘Raised In Harlem’, a story of Jesus healing. DJ Maj pops up with a mid/west coast sound, Verbs brings some dirty south flava, Liquid steps up with 'Gangsta' - a contemporary hip hop sound that flirts with r&b, a kind of Christian version of a 50 Cent / Usher collabo. High production levels, commercial vibes, a hip hop party album and a good intor to many of the different flavas of 'holy' hip hop. Run Time – 65.52.
Varied Artists - Hip Hope Hits 2007 | TOP
Hip Hope Hits, from Gotee Records, always produces an album with great artists, quality music and enough diversity to cater for most hip-hop tastes. In 2007, they’ve done it again. There is a great mix of hip-hop here, even delving into the underground and dirty south in order to bring you a great mix of hits. There’s a couple of new faces, some old favourites, new styles and even a remix, just to add to the flava. Grits start off the project with a slow mover, and the fantastic live Pettidee brings the heat to start with some good ol dirty south business. Mars Ill and LA Symph bring some deeper lyricism. There’s some familiar sounds from John Reuben, TobyMac and a remixed KJ to liven up your day. A couple of a downtempo sounds come from the laid back Japhia Life, a song about love from Verbs and a smoothy from DJ Maj. There are some street sounds from the lively Shonlock, Manafest with a rock styled hook and Liquid with a great jazz funk crossover track. MOC bring a bouncy hype pop-hip-hop track and B Reith ends the CD with a very catchy track laced with humour. He sounds very much like KJ52 in flow, lyrics and humour, but he is his own artist and one to look out for. If you’re looking for a great all-round hip-hop CD gift for yourself, friends or people you work with, this is one of the freshest places to start for an all-round insight into positive and Godly hip-hop. My only gripe with this is that the production is very up and down. For example the Shonlock track is lower and more muffled in the mix than say Grits. But this also has its own strength as it sounds more like a hip-hop album and less like the clinical project that many secular over-produced CDs suffer from. Run Time - 58.20.
Verses - Listening Session | TOP
When I read on Sphere of Hip Hop about this album and listened to the preview track, I knew it was going to be a must. So it turned out! If this project is anything to go by, Verses has a bright future with his smooth delivery. We're welcomed to the album with a 'live' band 'open mic' styled sound with great sounding soulful vocal harmonies from Chloe, Verses' wife. Next up is the astounding 'We Do It' produced by the great Tony Stone, with Mark J guesting. Mixed beats on the production, lyrics that do it for the love, for the people, in 'hopes that the listener will become a parishioner..' Word! In a great twist, 'Funky Dividends' uses a track that varies tempo and has a real change up between sections within this story, looking at music. A horn laced collabo with the distinctive and highly talented Braille launches 'Confusionunion' onto us. Verses confesses that the words Braille dropped for this track forced him to re-write and up his own lyrical content. The result is a nice medium paced track. On 'Fa La La' we have a guitar riff dropping down the chromatic scale over a heavy beat and lyrics that Verses hopes will be the antithesis to the club banger, 'we wreck the party for the G-O-D'. Tony Stone kills the beat, again, wow! In a timely call out of MTV and its booty shaking videos of scantily clad women, we have 'Ms O'Ginny' with Verses saying'..I don't want to see your nasties over my TV screen..' The responsibility lies with individuals and the system that abuses women and uses s e x to sell. Another stormer of a beat comes in 'Fatherless Child', an empathetic look at the reality of life in the hood and beyond - and the consequences to society - pointing to Jesus as the answer, the only answer. No hook on this, just a constant flow on an constant social ill. 'Love Jawns' is a beautiful downtempo track written just for and featuring his wife (about their life journey). In 'Cassette Tapes & Roller Skates' (feat Cult-Free and Verbs) we take a journey back to the early days of real hip-hop, 'there was a time when we rocked rhymes that matter, nowadays, MCs just chit-chatter..' As 'Yoof Rally' kicks in, it initially reminds me of Jay-Z, 'Hard Knock Life'. Verses encouarges parents to discipline a child. As Proverbs 29.15 says, "The rod of correction imparts wisdom, but a child left to himself disgraces his mother." Finally we end with a Radio Edit of 'We Do It'. Great project, more please! Run Time - 47.47.
What Are You Listening To - Hip Hop 2 Sampler | TOP
One way labels or distributors get you to buy their products is by offering samplers such as this one that include discounts off albums. In this case, £2 off albums. In most cases you'd present this at the shop. In my case I lost the vouchers. I think this is £1.99 to buy. I'd advise it. You get the awesome song 'Cry No More' by Cross Movement, the dirty south Grits, John Reuben, the mixmaster DJ Maj, the funky West coast style of T-Bone, the kid rapper Lil l'ROCC Williams, the true head Propaganda, the excellent hip hop worship song of Peace 586 and the funky almost breakers track 'Rock of Ages' by Sev Statik. Run Time - 47.20.
