MIX-TAPE-RADIO REVIEWS #1

Artist-Termanology

Title-   If heaven was a mile away

 producer/s- J-Dilla

Am not really a fan of tribute albums made by rappers. Why you may ask. Well taking a cue from history, most tribute albums always come out as half assed attempts to cash in on the post-humous talents of the “insert the name your favourite dead rapper here”. Examples?? Biggie duets!! We all know Diddy needed that paper FAST, I mean gulf streams don’t come cheap nowadays. Next-2Pac, ok lets save that for another review.

   When I first saw this-“yes, it’s a free download so yes-I DOWNLOAD MORE THAN I BUY CDS NOWADAYS-sue me”-I was already beaming from ear to ear-terminology on dilla beats-I mean what could go wrong here. Nothing I guess, well to be honest I really liked the beats here, the beats used on this mix-tape are familiar and tight, so I can’t take away points for that. Now let’s talk about the songs themselves.      

    Starting with OHH, this is really clever-bouncy beat with danzini screaming OHH every bar(a la blackrob’s WOAH). Term took advantage of this and it comes out very very nice-just play this in your jeeps and you would understand what I mean. Next is CIRCULATE. To me this is the best song on the entire mix-tape, the beat can’t be described, it really grabs your attention and holds on to it like a wrestler executing a figure four lock and Term spits a 100 bars too!! SAY IT is a sure hit-we have Joell, Saigon, Sheek, Freeway and Bun B on it and each one doesn’t slack a minute. Weakest link...hmm none here, try elsewhere homey.

        SPAZZ OUT and DOWN WITH THE KING(skit) are two laid back cuts, both come off nicely with no harm done. PAYJAY uses the human nature sample for those that don’t know, it doesn’t really stand out, just a track on the album-don’t get me wrong Big Pooh and them did their thang but it’s just a moderate joint. Same goes for CODE FOR THE ST and WHAT TYPE OF MONEY-dope beats, slightly above rhymes and subject matter. I was really drawn to ENEMIES because it had steele(smif n wessun) on it but steele came through with average rhymes on this phat joint.

HOT 97, MOVIE CLIP and ONLY ONE CAN WIN don’t disappoint but don’t shake your mental foundations either. SHE WANTS A SUPASTAR, uses the same beat from JAYLIB, nicely done, am already accustomed to the beat, am always waiting for Madlib to drop his verse. BOYS ON THE AVE-this is fat, remember the GOBSTOPPER beat from “donuts”-yeah same one, still fresh sound, stale subject matter but the hook is stuck in my brain and overall this is bump-able. Now we have a bonus joint- luckily we close on this very dope song, BARS FOR THE STARS, starring newcomers Skyzoo and Reks and they both KILLED IT. Peep Reks lines...

”...hell’s kitchen, we living in jail cell sentence,

sipping cognaq, till am catching contact

with the furthest galaxy you can name,

am aiming beyond that, this is beyond rap-this is trip taking...”

       In conclusion-I recommend this for die hard-J Dilla fans and non fans alike. But please bear in mind, this is a tribute album so don’t expect any ground breaking songs or what have you. But no matter what you do keep the following tracks in rotation

   Recommended listen- CIRCULATE, OHH, SAY IT,BARS FOR THE STARS

  LYRICS=4/5

 BEATS=5/5

 LONGEVITY=4/5

 FINAL JUDGMENT= Recommended

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