This really has been Inspectah's Decade. CZARFACE, the collaborative project between the legendary Rebel I.N.S. and the boom-bap revivalists 7L & Esoteric, have paired with the one and only MF Doom to release their fourth album in five years.
"Hey, what do you say we do a little team up?" CZAR asks of Doom. "Stop me if you've heard this one, but every hero needs a..." "Villain." Although not sounding as particularly villainous as he has in the past, Doom's contributions to CZARFACE Meets Metal Face match the quality that CZARFACE have been setting since their 2013 debut. This album is a fantastic demonstration of their chemistry, and a great followup to their first collaboration from 2015. They work because they've so much in common - superhero / supervillain themes, deep lyrical density, & favour hardcore hip-hop beats to lay down their rhymes. Even after the height of their careers, the recent renaissance by the artists involved with this album have them creating some of their best work since their classic albums. Consistency is one of CZARFACE Meets Metal Face's best strengths. Of all 16 tracks on the album, all equally balance on the bar of quality. 7L's instrumental palette is similar to that of previous CZAR albums, but is slightly darker to accommodate Doom's lower register. Opener 'Meddle With Metal' is a definite tone-setter, with knocking drums and a horn loop that sounds like a theme song, before instantly spiraling deep underground for 'Badness Of Madness', a pitch-black nightmare of an instrumental with a chilling piano line. Inspectah, Doom, & Esoteric all bring memorable bars to the table, with Esoteric's verse on 'Badness' being particularly deadly: "okay alright yo, you brought a knife to a gun fight / yeah well I would do that and stab the shooter, broad sunlight". This formula repeats across the duration of the album, although not enough to lock it into a repetitive slog; the excitement is found in the subtle differences between tracks. 'Don't Spoil It' is a very entertaining minute and a half, as Inspectah spits a verse where every lyric is a reference to a hip-hop related movie. Friday, Wild Style, Idlewild, Boyz N The Hood, Ghost Dog & more - followed by the snarky outro "Shhh, don't spoil it!" The two guest rappers bring a lot to the table. Comparative newcomer Open Mike Eagle (yes, I'm aware he's been making music for years) drops a calm, but very collected & clever verse on 'Phantoms', flipping his verse on it's head at the very end. Vinnie Paz of Jedi Mind Tricks fame, in contrast, brings aggression in spades on his contribution to 'Astral Travelling'; "My goons bloodthirsty, they will rush you like the Soviets!" It's a shame however that Doom forgoes a verse on this track, instead teasing with a few words between the verses on the song. Another thing to note about Doom's presence on the album is that his vocals are mixed quite low for some reason - it's hard to hear him at points, which is odd, considering neither Inspectah Deck or Esoteric have the same problem. Although Doom's verses are definitely good, especially on 'Nautical Depth' where he calls out rappers that incriminate themselves with their raps, the low mixing does detract from them slightly. Apart from this, and also a surprising lack of interaction between CZAR & Doom (they only talk to each other on the Esoteric solo 'Stun Gun' for a brief intermission between his verses), they both individually offer great things for this album that work impressively well next to each other. There are tracks of all intensities - high-energy standouts like 'Bomb Thrown' & 'Captain Crunch' sit well next to calmer moments like 'Forever People' & 'MF Czar', and no rap verse on CZARFACE Meets Metal Face disappoints. Inspectah Deck on 'Astral Travelling': ""We don't like I-N-S, he's too lyrical" / Yeah I'm deep blue sea, stay in your kiddie pool". That lyric is CZARFACE Meets Metal Face in a nutshell. 80/100 |
201820162015Scores0-30 = Bad
31-49 = Sub-par 50-60 = Average 61-70 = Decent 71-80 = Good 81-89 = Great 90-99 = Incredible 100 = Perfect Archives
September 2018
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