This is a fairly solid album all the way through and probably the best thing KRS has been involved in for ages - although I still have much to check out - and apart from his sensational debut, not much else has grabbed me. I always enjoy his in your face vocals and lyrics but often the beats he raps over leave room for improvement. To the other half of this team, and Buckshot is someone I haven't heard much from in the past. His group albums such as Blackmoon's Enta da Stage have been in my to listen to list for a while but I haven't got around to it yet, but I like what I hear on this album from him.
Track for track, as mentioned every track is fairly solid. The production is handled by a total of ten producers on this album but it still maintains the same sort of theme throughout the whole disc. I feel it does lose some steam though in the middle of the album. From 'Runnin' Away' to 'Hear No Evil' nothing is too great. But then it does finish well with some of the best tracks featuring late. Nothing though reaches the heights of 'ROBOT' which is a great track (where they talk about the autotune movement in hip hop) and puts Jay-Z's 'D.O.A.' to shame.
Like Raekwon's recent album and some other three outta fives, if some of the middle range tracks were up a level this would probably be a 3.5/5 but there are still too many just okay tracks. Also, I wouldn't have minded one or two tracks that changed the production up a tad more. A bit like Slaughterhouse did toward the end of their album for anyone who has listened to that. However, it's a pretty good feast of boom bap/hardcore hip hop beats with two hungry rappers and some good featuring verses. Worth a look.
Best Tracks: Survival Skills, ROBOT, Oh Really, Connection, Murder 1, We Made It
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