Boy, AZ has some terrible album covers. I'm glad a took a chance on this though, since it's probably his best album; less gritty than Doe or Die but no Hoe Happy Jacky or anything either. When he's most on point -- and it's rarely that he's not on point, he just gets too caught up in the wrong things to be exciting sometimes -- he's got some of the best rapping New York has to offer, as in the introduction or the title track. Definitely the best production of the three and Nature, Nas, and RZA all kill their guest spots, especially the former, whose work I'm inclined to explore on the basis of these 16 alone.
One of those albums I'm not in a particular rush to listen to again but holy shit, what an experience! One of the most focused and complete political manifestos in hip-hop, and unlike a lot of political MCs Kam can fucking spit too. Nice to see god cypher divine shining on the west coast.
Initially struck me as a bit generic (inasmuch as that can be applied to any of Davis' later work), but it ends up going to some marvelous places, especially in its second half. Along with Dark Magus one of the rock-ier albums I've heard from him but there's also a surprising amount of space.
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