Post by Benji Duncan on Oct 10, 2007 11:05:28 GMT -5
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The Shadow Records All Starz are four young rap/hip hop artists from the Alanson/Indian River/Petoskey area. Their music is produced by "Shadow," one of the four performers on their demo. All the lyrics are composed individually by the rappers as they appear on the tracks. The other three in the mic slaying quartet are "Illusiv," "Hotboy," and "Tin Five." Their original demo- "Mixtape, Volume:1" has 16 tracks and it's about 69 minutes long. It contains violent lyrics, racial slurs and violates the swear word taboo. It sells for 5 dollars in several local music stores.
"Mixtape" gives me mixed feelings, but overall it's worth the five dollars. Most of these mixed feelings come from inconsistent talent on the album and inconsistent caliber work from the talent. The Shadow Records All-Starz are not a balanced group. Most of the rap licks are given to "Illusiv" and "Shadow," but this is appropriate because they seem the two with the most talent. The other two rappers- "Hotboy" and "Tin Five" contribute random raps to a few of the songs. Some times these random appearances really add to the songs, but there are other times they take away from the song. They're both talented in their own rite both lyrically and vocally, but their presence is not that strong on the album and there are songs where I don't want to hear them.
"Illusiv" and "Shadow"- a black and white rap duo ("Shadow" is the white guy)- compliment each other's styles well. "Illusiv" has a deep, serious tone to his vocal work that is just as good tonal-wise as most professional Mtv rappers out there. I mean that. The kid is good. On the lyrical end however, he tends to be kind of hit or miss. There are times when his lyrics are bad to the level of comedy. "...this ain't the south, this is the north, hard core, where n#gg#rs use force, we'll ride up on your crib or jack you in your porshe," "you got me stone cold, just like steve austin, my shit is cleaner than the celtics out in boston, or the seahawks in seattle, you don't want to battle." Having heard Illusive's previous work however, "Volume -1" shows improvement with his lyrical abilities. Hopefully in the future we can expect him to develop into a fully well balanced talent that perhaps no other rapper in the area could touch. Tonally, he's already there.
"Shadow" has a higher tone, that doesn't really sound like eminem, but is of a similar style. He uses a great deal of reverb or "chorus" effect to his vocal contributions but sometimes I think he overkills it and when he does it's distracting. Shadow is the producer of the music so I think he's hearing his own vocal work and not liking what he hears so he's muffling it up, but it comes across as a audio level dropout sometimes. Common Shadow, nobody likes to hear their own voice, turn the chorus down a notch or two. You can also hear Shadow get winded when he has to spill out a long, fast vocal line. I like Shadows work on the album though, it compliments Illusiv well. They make a great duo.
Their songs are mostly about how you shouldn't fuck with Shadow Records. If you do they will cut off your legs, shoot you in the head, slit your throat, take all your "dope" and toss you on a mountain of body bags they've collected somewhere. Then they'll kill all your friends and rape your girlfriend. I don't know if they're planning to toss the body bags in Burt Lake or the sturgeon river- they don't specify- but hopefully they don't do it during the cherry festival or labor day weekend or it could mess with Northern Michigan tourism. Sometimes I have to stop and say "did they just say that?" so it can be entertaining in that sense. It would be nice to have some songs not about all this pretentious hyper-masculine bad boy stuff, but it's hip-hop, and I guess I shouldn't expect "the All Starz" to change the whole genre by themselves.
Overall I like this album. Like I say, the songs are kind of hit or miss. For every three novice songs there is one good one that makes the album worth a listen. But even their failures have a sort of cute charm. The group is very passionate about what they do and it shows. And with 16 tracks that adds up to 5 good tracks, which is a good showing for a local demo. Track 15- "Commin' from the tip of the mitt (turn it up)" is a kick ass song. I don't even like this kind of music normally but find myself bobbing my head and wanting to hook myself up with a Bentley and a bottle of crystal every time I hear it. So if you're a hip hop fan, I recommend this demo. And I'm not just saying that because I'm scared of getting "popped."
Benji's Rating- 3.3/5 (worth buying)
Description
The Shadow Records All Starz are four young rap/hip hop artists from the Alanson/Indian River/Petoskey area. Their music is produced by "Shadow," one of the four performers on their demo. All the lyrics are composed individually by the rappers as they appear on the tracks. The other three in the mic slaying quartet are "Illusiv," "Hotboy," and "Tin Five." Their original demo- "Mixtape, Volume:1" has 16 tracks and it's about 69 minutes long. It contains violent lyrics, racial slurs and violates the swear word taboo. It sells for 5 dollars in several local music stores.
Benji's Review
"Mixtape" gives me mixed feelings, but overall it's worth the five dollars. Most of these mixed feelings come from inconsistent talent on the album and inconsistent caliber work from the talent. The Shadow Records All-Starz are not a balanced group. Most of the rap licks are given to "Illusiv" and "Shadow," but this is appropriate because they seem the two with the most talent. The other two rappers- "Hotboy" and "Tin Five" contribute random raps to a few of the songs. Some times these random appearances really add to the songs, but there are other times they take away from the song. They're both talented in their own rite both lyrically and vocally, but their presence is not that strong on the album and there are songs where I don't want to hear them.
"Illusiv" and "Shadow"- a black and white rap duo ("Shadow" is the white guy)- compliment each other's styles well. "Illusiv" has a deep, serious tone to his vocal work that is just as good tonal-wise as most professional Mtv rappers out there. I mean that. The kid is good. On the lyrical end however, he tends to be kind of hit or miss. There are times when his lyrics are bad to the level of comedy. "...this ain't the south, this is the north, hard core, where n#gg#rs use force, we'll ride up on your crib or jack you in your porshe," "you got me stone cold, just like steve austin, my shit is cleaner than the celtics out in boston, or the seahawks in seattle, you don't want to battle." Having heard Illusive's previous work however, "Volume -1" shows improvement with his lyrical abilities. Hopefully in the future we can expect him to develop into a fully well balanced talent that perhaps no other rapper in the area could touch. Tonally, he's already there.
"Shadow" has a higher tone, that doesn't really sound like eminem, but is of a similar style. He uses a great deal of reverb or "chorus" effect to his vocal contributions but sometimes I think he overkills it and when he does it's distracting. Shadow is the producer of the music so I think he's hearing his own vocal work and not liking what he hears so he's muffling it up, but it comes across as a audio level dropout sometimes. Common Shadow, nobody likes to hear their own voice, turn the chorus down a notch or two. You can also hear Shadow get winded when he has to spill out a long, fast vocal line. I like Shadows work on the album though, it compliments Illusiv well. They make a great duo.
Their songs are mostly about how you shouldn't fuck with Shadow Records. If you do they will cut off your legs, shoot you in the head, slit your throat, take all your "dope" and toss you on a mountain of body bags they've collected somewhere. Then they'll kill all your friends and rape your girlfriend. I don't know if they're planning to toss the body bags in Burt Lake or the sturgeon river- they don't specify- but hopefully they don't do it during the cherry festival or labor day weekend or it could mess with Northern Michigan tourism. Sometimes I have to stop and say "did they just say that?" so it can be entertaining in that sense. It would be nice to have some songs not about all this pretentious hyper-masculine bad boy stuff, but it's hip-hop, and I guess I shouldn't expect "the All Starz" to change the whole genre by themselves.
Overall I like this album. Like I say, the songs are kind of hit or miss. For every three novice songs there is one good one that makes the album worth a listen. But even their failures have a sort of cute charm. The group is very passionate about what they do and it shows. And with 16 tracks that adds up to 5 good tracks, which is a good showing for a local demo. Track 15- "Commin' from the tip of the mitt (turn it up)" is a kick ass song. I don't even like this kind of music normally but find myself bobbing my head and wanting to hook myself up with a Bentley and a bottle of crystal every time I hear it. So if you're a hip hop fan, I recommend this demo. And I'm not just saying that because I'm scared of getting "popped."
Benji's Rating- 3.3/5 (worth buying)
