Humble Beast Humble Beginnings Vol. One Review

Label- Humble Beast/Syntax
Not too many compilations are ever worth the listen, even when you put the best artists together. So I normally approach such projects with a “win some, lose some” attitude. Well, Humble Beast smashed that to bits for me. Some of the most respected cats in Christian rap came together (much like Voltron) and formed a “Humble Beast” a new movement aiming to take on the hip hop culture with their brand of creative, real and truthful hip hop. With guys like Braille, Odd Thomas and Theory Hazit on the team, there’s no need to overemphasize the resulting success. The concept is simple; emcees with beastly delivery yet humble enough to serve Christ with their gifting.
On Humble Beginnings Volume One there’s quite a lot of storytelling, cool production and mind-blowing collaborations which makes for a neatly done project. As brief as 11 tracks, this project is a solid argument for the case “hip hop is not dead”. With each cat bringing his own experience, style and craft to the table we are privileged to hear and experience the best of the best.
Kicking off with what seems like an unusual yet impressive intro for this type of project (a Pastor Eric Mason sermon excerpt), you know you are in for a good listen as you slide down the track list. “The Dream That You Gave To Me” with Braille and the late Citizen Aim (RIP) is a simple and awesome joint, a pledge to make god’s business one’s business. Sareem Poems serves up a nice metaphorical story about “The Beast” on “The Story that’s Rarely Told” and then there’s the banger “Humble Hungry” with Theory Hazit, Odd Thomas and Citizen Aim. Each cat spitting solid verses over a beat that’ll be hard to get out of you head. Propaganda weighs in with “Beautiful Pain” an unusual but truthful ode to pain and by the time Odd Thomas ends things with “Truth Wars” you’ll probably get upset that the album’s done! Each song gets you thinking and for me that’s the beauty of this project; rap for the “thinking man”. The production of each beat is excellent and the mixing comes across beautifully except for a few cases where I couldn’t hear Citizen Aim’s verses properly. I loved the emphasis on live drums on most of the songs, a rarity nowadays.
I really can’t wait for Volume Two, whenever and if it ever comes out. I can’t help but wonder that if they call this humble, what’s next???

LMNO & Theory Hazit Determined To Fly Review

Having duos in hip hop? Hmmm… maybe as singers it could work out pretty easily but it’s pretty hard to come across two guys doing rap music and doing it well enough that you don’t notice that one is outshining the other. I can only think of a few successes; Redman & Methodman, The Lox, Everyday Process… but the subjects of this review, LMNO & Theory Hazit seem to possess this chemistry that enables them to come hard enough to get them appreciated. It’s like LMNO’s the knife that cuts the meat and Mr. Hazit does the rest.
On Determined to Fly the dynamic duo serve a vintage hip hop album with no strings attached, unadulterated game, more than convincing delivery and the type of beats that got me hooked on the beautiful genre in the first place. Almost everything on the album’s perfect even down to the album art, a fish with outspread wings leaping above some water and the mere sight of that even without hearing single scratch from the album is enough to bless you. It’s a beautiful tribute to a beautiful art form seeing how very few people put much thought into album art nowadays.
Songs that definitely should be on constant repeat on this project include “Boombaptism”, “Money” with Suzi Analogue, “Born to Write” and the title track “Determined to Fly” a really dope jam and my favorite “Full Motion” especially because of the last verse where Theory Hazit merged analogies on both sports and different music genres together! Pure bliss I tell you. Of course there’s the seemingly inevitable drawback of this album being the type that not everyone in your class or down at choir practice would be into. That’s probably intended because the album comes across as targeted at only a select few, the “conscious/underground hip hop heads”.
Whatever the case may be, Determined to Fly is a 4.5 star effort that makes 2010 a happy year musically for anyone with good ears. Peace!!!!